Regulations and Academic Requirements

Pharmacy students should become familiar with the General Information section of this catalog, which covers many regulations that affect all Drake University students. The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences also has a number of specific regulations and requirements that must be met to progress through the pharmacy curriculum. Some of these are listed below; others are available in the Pharmacy Student Handbook at Pharmacy Student Handbook.

Many pharmacy courses have prerequisite requirements. Enrollment in a course is denied if prerequisite courses have not been successfully completed. Therefore, deviations from the curriculum as it is structured require careful consideration. Course prerequisites may be found in the Class Details on Self Service.

Pharmacy students may apply a maximum of 9 hours of elective coursework on a credit/no credit basis toward graduation. Courses regularly graded on a credit/no credit basis are not included within the 9 hours maximum. The student must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75 before registering in a course on a credit/no credit basis.

Candidates qualifying for the degree must complete the required credit hours for graduation and have at least a 2.00 cumulative GPA. The grading scale for pharmacy students enrolled in pharmacy-designated courses generally follows the standard system of "A", "B", "C", "D" or "F", though specific grading scales may vary at the discretion of the course instructor. All didactic coursework must be successfully completed before a student enrolls in the final year of coursework (Experiential Rotations).

Students may not progress onto rotations unless a "C" or better is earned in each required course. Students are permitted to retake a pharmacy required course for a passing grade (2.0 GPA or "C") one time only. Students who do not obtain a 2.0 (or "C") in a pharmacy required course after two attempts will be dismissed from the PharmD program.  Once a student enters the professional program, all didactic coursework must be completed in four years (five years for extended pathway). This four-year timeframe may be paused for medical or personal leave as approved by CPHS. Students who are unable to complete the didactic course work in the designated time period will be dismissed from the program.

All final-year pharmacy students are required to complete 40 weeks of experiential rotations (PHAR 285 EXPERIENTIAL ROTATION BLOCK) prior to graduation. During these experiential rotations, students apply pharmaceutical principles related to diagnosis, treatment and patient care; monitor drug utilization and drug therapy and interact with patients, physicians, nurses and other health care providers. Due to regulations at many of the experiential sites, the college will complete a criminal background check and drug screening prior to admission into the professional program and again prior to entering the experiential year. Students who have a history of a felony are referred to the State Board of Pharmacy where they plan to practice pharmacy to determine if their record would prohibit licensure. Experiential sites have the right to refuse to accept a student for rotations based on the results of the criminal background check even if the history would not prohibit licensure as a pharmacist. Many of these sites also require that a copy of the background check is forwarded to them. Students who have positive drug screens and will be entering rotations will be referred to the Chemical Dependency Policy.

Candidates for the Doctor of Pharmacy degree are required to be in residence in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for at least the last 30 credit hours before becoming eligible for graduation. Credit earned by examination may not be counted toward fulfillment of the last 30 credit hours.

The CPHS blended advising model seeks to support the mission of Drake University and the Health Sciences program in the provision of a student-centered learning environment. This academic care team includes the faculty mentor and the Office of Student Affairs. Through the model, students have multiple sources of information to address questions related to the PharmD curricular objectives and their professional goals. An individual educational plan will be developed by the student with input from the faculty mentor and CPHS Office of Student Affairs. The development of the plan will seek to achieve the following:

I. confirmation of the student's major and track within the pharmacy program,
II. discussion of professional life goals including career paths and post-graduate work,
III. satisfactory completion of requirements of the program,
IV. completion of annual requirements for progression within the program,
V. development of skills necessary for succeeding in the program that they have chosen, and
VI. referral of the student to resources and services on campus if needed.

The final responsibility for completion of graduation requirements, however, belongs to the student and, accordingly, each student should become familiar not only with the curriculum but also with the academic regulations of the college.