TCC, OU-Tulsa Celebrate National Recognition of Model Pharmacy Program
Tulsa Community College (TCC) and University of Oklahoma-Tulsa (OU-Tulsa) officials celebrated the early success of their nationally-recognized joint pharmacy doctoral program and its recent national recognition.
The TCC-OU program was a finalist for the prestigious Bellwether Award, given by the Community College Futures Assembly for outstanding and innovative workforce development programs. It is believed that TCC is the first Bellwether Award finalist from Oklahoma in the nine year history of the Award.
The Assembly is an annual convocation of key opinion leaders who address critical issues facing the future of community colleges.
The program, the only one of its kind in the United States, allows a TCC student to substitute an associate degree in preprofessional science for the first two years of the six-year OU College of Pharmacy (OU Pharmacy) doctoral degree plan. Also, Northeast Oklahoma students can complete the final four years at OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center.
A regional shortage of pharmacists, identified by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, is documented by a study of 22 Northeastern Oklahoma counties conducted by OU.
In 2002 and 2003, 33 to 40 percent of students admitted
to OU Pharmacy were in the Tulsa program. Thirty five students currently
in OU Pharmacy have taken some preparatory coursework at TCC, 11 substituted
an associate degree for the first two years at OU. Before 2001, approximately
15% of the applicants to OU Pharmacy came from Northeastern Oklahoma.
Attention was drawn to the national pharmacist shortage by a year 2000
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, The Pharmacists Workforce:
A Study of the Supply and Demand for Pharmacists.
In order to substitute for the first two years of classes in OU Pharmacy, an associate degree from TCC must include at least 64 credit hours of courses recognized by OU as admission prerequisites.
Story Contact: Demetrius Bereolos, TCC, 918.595.7955