PHAR 557 - Public Health in Pharmacy
Fall 2011 Syllabus
Course Coordinator: Curtis Noonan, Ph.D.
Office: SB 159
Mail: SB 280 Phone: 243-4957
email: curtis.noonan@umontana.edu
Office hours: Drop in Friday afternoons 1-3pm; set up appointments for other times
Other Instructors: Jean Carter, Bill Docktor, Gayle Hudgins, Kendra Procacci, Ellen Leahy
Class Times and Location: Tues/Thurs at 11:10-12:00 in SB114
Required Readings:
 All students must have a copy of the required textbook: Carter J and Slack M. Pharmacy in Public
Health: Basics and Beyond. 2010. American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists: Bethesda, MD.
 Other readings as assigned.
Overview and Goal of the Course:
This course is designed to introduce pharmacy students to the principles of public health practice within the
pharmacy setting. General topics will include levels of prevention, descriptive epidemiology, risk management,
public health law and ethics, substance abuse, community health centers and emergency preparedness. Students
will also be introduced to specific examples of pharmacists/pharmacies that are engaged in public health
activities. Each student will be responsible for describing a chronic disease and designing a disease prevention
strategy. This is also a designated Service Learning course, and students will participate in community-based
public health activities.
After completing this course, students should be aware of public health issues, know the various agencies and
initiatives that are concerned with public health, be able to identify vulnerable populations and risks, understand
how pharmacists can contribute to public health, know where to find information about a variety of public
health issues, identify community leadership roles for pharmacists, and participate in a health-related
community service learning project.
Percent of Total Points (500 points)
Moodle Assignment #1
5%
Moodle Assignment #2
5%
Moodle Assignment #3
5%
Moodle Assignment #4
5%
Moodle Assignment #5
20%
Moodle Assignment #6
5%
Exam
15%
Participation/professionalism
5%
Service learning project:
35%
TOTAL
100%
(25 pts)
(25 pts)
(25 pts)
(25 pts)
(100 pts)
(25 pts)
(75 pts)
(25 pts)*
(175 pts)
(500 pts)
Components of service learning project:
Reflection papers
20 pts
Progress Report #1
15 pts**
Progress Report #2
15 pts**
Final written report
50 pts**
Project presentation #1 25 pts**
Project presentation #2 25 pts**
Project presentation #3 25 pts**
175 pts
*Includes peer evaluation of team work on service
learning project
**These points are earned as a group;
all other points are earned individually.
1
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS:
Moodle Assignment #1: Disease Selection
Choose from among more than two dozen cause of death diagnoses. Your selection of disease or a clustering of
diseases will apply to your subsequent assignments.
Moodle Assignment #2
Capture some simple descriptive mortality data for your selected cause of death. Instructions will be provided
for using the CDC Wonder site to capture these summary mortality measures.
Moodle Assignment #3
Further explore descriptive mortality data for your selected cause of disease. Students will describe mortality
rates according to person, place and time using tools on the CDC Wonder site.
Moodle Assignment #4
Identify potential prevention strategies for your selected cause of death. Students will briefly identify one
example for each level of prevention (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary). Prevention strategies do not necessarily
need to be relevant to the pharmacy practice setting.
Moodle Assignment #5
Upload a presentation of one prevention strategy for your selected cause of disease. The prevention strategy
should be relevant and implementable in a pharmacy setting. There are no specific criteria for the format of the
presentation but options could include video, powerpoint slides, or other. The total presentation should take the
audience about five minutes to view. Presentations will be scored by the instructor and by up to five classroom
peers. Judging criteria will be provided and will focus on professionalism, practicality of prevention program,
and relevance to public health.
Moodle Assignment #6
Students will be assigned to score five presentations from Assignment #5.
EXAM:
One exam will be administered covering lecture material and content from the text or other reading
assignments.
SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT:
Students will be assigned to teams and each team will be assigned to a service learning project. Service
learning combines practical experience and classroom learning to promote student learning and provide a
needed service to the community. Projects that "need to be done" were selected for this endeavor. Students will
have an opportunity to work with individuals on campus and in the community who work to promote health and
prevent disease. This is one project where the students' efforts will actually benefit members of the community.
These projects are selected by community partners based on needs they have identified.
Service Learning Project Advisors:
Jean Carter and Gayle Hudgins will each advise three project teams.
Activities and Assignments Related to Service Learning Projects
Two class sessions are devoted to interim oral presentations by each group. The third and final oral
presentation will take place during finals week. The groups may designate one or two presenters to
represent the group but each student may not present more than once. Each group will prepare two
interim reports. Instructions for the content of these interim reports will be provided. A final written
report with any associated materials relevant to the group’s service learning project will be due the day
2
of final presentations. Each student will participate in reflection activities based on the service learning
project experience that are designed to demonstrate increased awareness of public health issues in a
community and describe how pharmacists can actively participate in improving health in a population.
Reflection activities include short reflection forms, a reflection paper, and verbal reflections and
feedback in integrated studies and during project presentations. Finally, each student will be asked to
provide evaluations of their service learning project team members.
Course Grade:
This course will use the traditional letter grade option without the use of pluses or minuses. Therefore, final
grades will consist of the following: A, B, C, D, F. Grades will be calculated based on the standard formula
(90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; 70-79% = C; 60-69% = D; 59% and below = F).
Expectations for Student Behavior
Students will be expected to behave in a professional manner. Students will be expected to attend all lectures
and behave in a professional and respectful manner during the class. As a courtesy to others, please clean up
the classroom as you leave.
Academic Honesty
All students must practice academic honesty. Academic misconduct is subject to an academic penalty by the
course instructor and/or a disciplinary sanction by the University. All students need to be familiar with the
Student Conduct Code. The Code is available for review online at
http://www.umt.edu/SA/VPSA/index.cfm/page/1321.
3
Schedule of Topics, Lecturers, and Assignments for Fall 2011
Date
8/30
LECTURER
Curtis Noonan
Jean Carter
Curtis Noonan
Curtis Noonan
Curtis Noonan
Jean Carter
Curtis Noonan
Reading
Assignments
Text: Ch. 1-2
Text: Ch. 10-11
#1: Select disease
9/13
TOPIC
Course Overview and
Introduction to Service Learning Projects
History of Public Health
Descriptive Epidemiology
Web-based tools (CDC Wonder…)
SLP Assignments
Determinants of Health
9/15
9/20
Health Promotion
Levels of Prevention
Curtis Noonan
Jean Carter
Text: Ch 8
Text: Ch 9
9/22
9/27
9/29
Prevention strategies in pharmacy
Service Learning Group Presentations #1:
Description of Topic
Risk Management
Curtis Noonan
Students
Jean Carter
Jean Carter
10/4
10/6
10/11
Case studies: tobacco cessation; obesity
Vignettes from Managed Care Pharmacy
Local Public Health
10/13
10/18
10/20
10/25
10/27
11/1
11/3
11/8
Public Health Law
Analytical Epidemiology I
Analytical Epidemiology II
Epidemiology in Drug Safety and Regulation
Service Learning Group Presentations #2:
Description of Project, Methods and Plans for
Data Collection
Food-borne illness – multidisciplinary approach
Substance abuse, addiction, and dependence I
Substance abuse, addiction, and dependence II
Curtis Noonan
Curtis Noonan
Ellen Leahy
Jean Carter
Jean Carter
Curtis Noonan
Curtis Noonan
Curtis Noonan
Students
Jean Carter
11/10
11/15
Culture, cost, and ethical issues
Pharmacy Practice and community health centers
11/17
11/21
IPHARM
MONDAY CLASS: Exam review
View top disease prevention presentations
THANKSGIVING – No Class
THANKSGIVING – No Class
Standard Precautions
Exam (covering all topics through 11/17)
Emergency Preparedness I
Emergency Preparedness II
Emergency Preparedness III
Q/A for Final Presentation
Service Learning Group Presentations #3:
Final Presentation: SB114, 10:10-12:10
9/1
9/6
9/8
11/24
11/26
11/29
12/1
12/6
12/8
12/15
Text: Ch 6
NO CLASS
NO CLASS
Sarah Miller
Curtis Noonan
Jean Carter
Jean Carter
Jean Carter
Jean Carter
Gayle Hudgins
Curtis Noonan
4
#3: Describe disease by
demographics
Service Learning Interim
Report #1
#4: Identify Prevention
Strategies
Text: Ch 13; 15
Text: Ch 3
Text: Ch 4
Service Learning Interim
Report #2
Curtis Noonan
Bill Docktor
Bill Docktor
Jean Carter
Kendra
Procacci
Rachael Zins
Curtis Noonan
#2: Describe disease by
geography
#5: Upload prevention
presentation
#6: Rate five assigned
presentations
Text: Ch 5; 7
NO CLASS
NO CLASS
Exam (on-line)
Text: Ch. 17
Service Learning Final
Written Report