"Enhancing Louisiana's Health and Environment"

The College of Pharmacy at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Louisiana’s College of Pharmacy, endeavors to create a professional learning environment that embraces the concept of continual quality improvement. This environment will enable the College to produce and maintain excellent academic, research and service programs that directly enhance the health and environment of the state of Louisiana and beyond.

The mission of the College of Pharmacy (COP) is to educate future health care professionals to meet the diverse pharmaceutical care needs of the people of Louisiana and to serve the professions of pharmacy and toxicology through a balanced program of education, research, service, and patient care.

The strategic decisions and daily operations of the College’s faculty and staff will be reflective of  the following values:

• Responsibility - acting morally, ethically, and with integrity, as well as being accountable for one's actions. Students, faculty, and staff have a duty to adhere to these standards. We also recognize our duty to be thoughtful stewards of those resources entrusted to us.

• Innovation - the synthesis, embodiment, or combination of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services, especially as related to promoting optimal patient and educational outcomes.

• Collaboration - the development of educational, research and practice partnerships among students, practitioners, educators, and other stakeholders.

• Quality - the pursuit of excellence, which is cultivated and assessed through a process of continual quality improvement.

• Professionalism - the demonstration of structural, attitudinal, and behavioral attributes of a profession and its members. Certain professional attributes, including a service orientation; caring; respect for others; accountability and responsibility for one's action; integrity; honesty; ethically sound decision making; and a commitment to life-long learning are fundamental to our functioning as learners, educators, researchers, scholars, and practitioners of pharmacy.

In addition to the values stated above, we have set the following goals:

Education

1. Educate entry level pharmacy practitioners to deliver pharmacy care in a dynamic, culturally diverse society, enabling graduates to enter a wide range of existing or emerging health care practices.
2. Provide effective graduate education in the pharmaceutical and toxicological sciences.
3. Recognize professional education as an individual process that begins in the academic setting and continues throughout the professional career, not only for the student but educators and practitioners as well.
4. Model attitudes and values that emphasize the importance of a team approach to patient-centered care.
5. Integrate basic, clinical, administrative and toxicological sciences.

Research/Scholarly Activity

1. Promote, develop and sustain excellence in graduate study and research in the clinical, basic, social and administrative sciences, thereby adding to the body of knowledge for scientists and educators in pharmacy, toxicology and related fields.

2. Promote research and scholarship that lead to improved patient care.

3. Promote research and scholarship that lead to improved educational outcomes.

4. Assess and evaluate all research and scholarly activity undertaken within the College.

5. Provide appropriate mentorship for faculty development.

Service

1. Address the healthcare and other societal needs by involving faculty, staff, and students in service activities at the University, local, state, national and international levels.

2. Promote wellness and disease prevention.

3. Promote therapeutic interventions, rational medication use, and the judicious use of economic resources.

4. Advance student and faculty participation and leadership in professional organizations.

Pharmacy Practice

1. Promote and optimize pharmacy care in order to improve patient outcomes.

2. Promote postgraduate professional training and assume an active role in the development of residencies and fellowships.

Reflection upon our stated mission, values, and goals has led us to develop the following educational philosophy:

The entry level Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum is an integration of biomedical, pharmaceutical, clinical, and administrative sciences to prepare practitioners who can effectively provide pharmaceutical care in a changing profession. consistent with the educational philosophy of the University, the educational process is based on a student-centered approach that values life-long learning and the development of complex problem solving skills. Faculty demonstrate through their teaching, practice, and research the highest standards of professionalism and a passion for quality patient care.

Students will demonstrate the following:

1. A commitment to developing life-long learning habits.

2. The abilities required for a competent and contemporary patient-centered pharmacy practice.

3. Behaviors and attitudes necessary for professional growth and development.