University of Toronto's pharmacy program to change

After a decade of offering its pharmacy program, the University of Toronto is starting a curriculum renewal process. It will reshape how the institution offers pharmacy education, and launch in September 2024, at the earliest. “What we recognized during COVID is that the world is changing quickly—it really shines a light on the role of pharmacists moving into the future, and scope is continuing to change,” said Jamie Kellar, associate academic dean at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, who is leading the renewal. “There are a lot of opportunities for us to rethink how we train contemporary pharmacists, and a curriculum renewal will allow us to really think about . . . how we can ensure we’re training not just for today, but for the future.” The school also learned many lessons about delivering education virtually during the pandemic, which will likely be carried into the future planning with a more hybrid model. “Really the pandemic gave us a way to think, how can we really efficiently use our in-person time, and augment that potentially with alternative methods of delivery,” said Kellar, adding that many students commute and work, and that offering more online options allows them to save time. Read: Emily Musing chosen as Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s inaugural Leader-in-Residence Another key set of priorities will be more focus on equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. “Our curriculum already includes a number of those components, but with a renewal, we have an opportunity to use that lens to frame how we design and recreate the curriculum, and we can really work with all of our faculty members and our students that come from diverse backgrounds, and really make sure that our curriculum is representing all of the communities that pharmacies will serve,” Kellar said. More flexible curriculums will add to student-centredness, she says, including allowing students to design their own education to suit their own professional goals—“to really cater their education to where they would like to take their career." Student wellness is also top of mind, as the pandemic highlighted the importance of mental health. “We’re hearing more about occupational stress and burnout in healthcare workers than we ever have before. We’re training healthcare providers to enter that workspace, so prioritizing wellness proactively and how students can have meaningful careers and still have successful academic lives, but also take care of their wellness, sets them up for success as they enter the workplace,” said Kellar, adding, “We have to try not to burn students out before they even get into the workforce.” Read: New PharmD grads kick off careers with award-winning tech venture The pharmacy school is still at the high-level stage of discussions around changes, and the details on execution will be figured out in consultation with stakeholders and students over the next year or two, said Kellar. The review is also scanning of best practices at other schools. “We’ve been delivering pharmacy education in a very similar fashion for decades, and education as a science has come a long way, health professions’ education has come a long way, and so a renewal allows us to really look at contemporary education, and really modernize our professional pharmacy education, and to do a number of things quite differently than we’ve ever done before,” she says. “We’re really looking to change how professional education is conceptualized and delivered, and ultimately, that will be a huge benefit not only to our learners, but to Canadians that will benefit from the care that they provide.” Read: University of Toronto’s Discovery Pharmacy offers students hands-on learning

University of Toronto's pharmacy program to change

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