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Diabetes Concentration

This unique program provides students the opportunity to fulfill their general and professional electives with courses that will assist them in developing expertise in diabetes. The general goal of this concentration is to prepare pharmacy students to be competent providers of diabetes patient care.
Fundamental concepts include an enhanced understanding of the following:

Pathophysiology of and endocrinologic basis for diabetes.
Social mileu for diabetes
Impact of diabetes on minority populations.
Psychosocial issues and the impact on diabetes management
Therapeutics of managing diabetes
Developing/marketing diabetes care services

Occupations

The concentration enables pharmacy students to:

Effectively coordinate the care of diabetes patients.
Become leaders in diabetes management by establishing practices which provide high quality diabetes care.
Effectively negotiate with patients and other providers to improve the quality of diabetes care.
Monitor subjective and objective markers of safety and effectiveness and intervene as required to ensure safe and effective therapy.
Select appropriate prescription and non-prescription therapies.
Monitor patients for adverse drug-drug and drug-disease interactions and intervene as appropriate with patients and health care providers.
Educate patients on techniques such as insulin injection and self-monitoring of blood glucose.

Curricular Requirements

Students planning to pursue this concentration should complete the Change of Record Form in Self Service - Student Records - Change of Record.

The concentration consists of both a didactic and experiential component. A total of 20 credit hours is required for the concentration. The didactic component constitutes a total of 10 credit hours of which 7 credit hours are required (and may also fulfill professional elective requirements) and 3 credit hours are elective. The remaining 10 credit hours are completed through experiential rotations.

Required Courses (7 Credits)

The professional coursework that will need to be taken includes the following courses:

PHAR 126 - Principles of Nutrition (Prior to the P3 year) 2 credits - WWW
PHAR 128 - Advanced Diabetes Care (P3 Fall) 3 credits - WWW
PHAR 129 - Integrated Diabetes Cases (P3 Spring) 2 credits

Note: The above courses will also fulfill professional elective course requirements.

Elective Courses (3 credits)

Elective courses previously determined to provide an appropriate background in psychosocial issues, educational principles, and cultural aspects of chronic disease. Potential courses include the following:

BIO 032 - Wellness and Nutrition
EDUC 164 - Perspectives in Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (MyDUSIS Subject: Teaching and Learning)
SOC - Specific courses as approved by the Associate Dean.
PSY 030 - Social Psychology
PSY 044 - Adult Development and Aging
PSY 060 - Principles of Behavior
PSY 124 - Health Psychology (Psy 1 prerequisite)
HSCI 103 - Narrative Health Care
HSCI 106 - Culture Care and Health Lit
HSCI 148 - Exercise Testing and Prescription
*HSCI 145 - Health Coaching (PHAR 071 or HSCI 055 prerequisite)
*PHAR 114 - Advances in Cardiac Disease (PHAR major required)
*PHAR 119 - Topics in Neuropharmacology (PHAR major required)
Courses offered through the Global and Comparative Public Health Concentration
- HSCI 144: Introduction to Public Health
- POLS 127: Global Public Health
- POLS 169: Comparative Public Health Policy
- HSCI 142: Community Health Education (2 credits)
- HSCI 143: Epidemiology
- PHIL 124: Health and Social Justice, OR PHIL 151: Environmental Justice
- WLC 148: Intercultural Communication
- WLC 150: Spanish for Health Care Providers

* 2 credit course; additional 1 credit will be fulfilled by Global and Cultural Understanding AOI requirement.

Note that not all courses listed above offered each semester and/or year; MyDUSIS includes each semester's course listings. Other courses may be used as approved by Associate Dean, including transfer courses from DMACC, Grandview among other institutions. Complete the Transfer Credit Request Form to ensure that the course will fulfill the requirement.

These electives need to be completed by end of the P2 year when the required course work begins.

Experiential Education Requirements (10 credits)

Students will complete two 5-credit APPEs to provide practice-based application of the intensive diabetes coursework required for the concentration. APPEs meeting the requirements of the concentration will be designated by the Experiential Education Office. Students will submit preferences for these placements. Assignments are at the discretion of the Experiential Education Office.

Attributes of these APPEs include, but are not limited to, significant prevalence of diabetes in the practice, pharmacist leadership in the patient care process, and active roles for students in assisting the health care team with diabetes management, education, and prevention.

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