In Year 2 of the PharmD program, students undertake additional foundational courses as well as several courses related to patient care practice. At the end of their course work, students will undertake 160 hours of experiential education in a patient care setting during the summer. 

Course Descriptions

PHM201H1 Pharmacotherapy 2: Self Care and Minor Ailments Prescribing

Self-care perspectives and pharmacotherapy is the second in a series of Pharmacotherapy courses taught over three years. In addition to covering selected therapeutic topics relating to self-care, (primarily dermatology and EENT) the course will address principles of drug therapy in the practice context of self-care in which pharmacists work unsupervised as the primary health professional contact. It will build and enhance students’ knowledge and skills in the management of minor, self-limiting and self-diagnosed ailments, which is within the scope of practice for pharmacists. Special contextual issues relating to the pharmacist’s role in self-care, particularly communicating with patients; and the pharmacist’s responsibility in accurately assessing and triaging patients, developing care plans and monitoring for this patient population, including special populations of concern. Issues of preventing drug therapy problems related to patient self-selection will be part of patient safety concerns.  This course will build on content and skills from PHM101H1 and PHM105H1. The course will be aligned to the other Pharmacotherapy modules and will provide the required knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to effectively manage patients’ drug therapy in incorporating relevant schema recognition, pathophysiology, pharmacology, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutics and evidence-based authoritative sources of best practice pharmacotherapy.
Prerequisite: PHM101H1; PHM105H1; PHM113H1; PHM140H1; PHM141H1; PHM145H1; PHM146H1
Co-requisite:  PHM205H1; PHM241H1; PHM242H1

PHM202H1 Pharmacotherapy 3: Endocrinology, Nephrology and Urology

This course is designed for pharmacy students to develop a broad understanding of pathophysiology, pharmacology, clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacotherapy in major areas of endocrinology, nephrology and urology.  The course will use a problem-based approach with emphasis on the integration and application of fundamental principles to specific clinical situations.
Prerequisite: PHM101H1; PHM105H1; PHM113H1; PHM140H1; PHM141H1; PHM142H1; PHM143H1; PHM144H1; PHM145H1; PHM146H1
Co-requisite: PHM205H1

PHM203H1 Pharmacotherapy 4: Infectious Diseases

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge in pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacokinetics and relevant pharmaceutics required to be a practitioner in infectious diseases therapeutics. The course will be taught using a variety of techniques including on-line lectures, case-based learning and small interactive group learning.
Prerequisite: PHM101H1; PHM105H1; PHM113H1; PHM140H1; PHM141H1; PHM142H1; PHM143H1; PHM144H1; PHM145H1; PHM146H1; PHM205H1; PHM212H1; PHM242H1
Co-requisite: PHM206H1; PHM230H1

PHM204H1 Pharmacotherapy 5: Cardiovascular Diseases

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge in pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, and clinical pharmacokinetics required to be a practitioner in cardiovascular therapeutics. The course will be taught using a variety of techniques including lecture and team-based learning.
Prerequisite: PHM101H1; PHM140H1; PHM141H1; PHM142H1; PHM143H; PHM144H1; PHM146H1
Co-requisite: PHM206H1

PHM205H1 Medication Therapy Management 2

This Medication Therapy Management (MTM) course is the second of the four-part series of simulated pharmacy practice courses. MTM 2 will enable a student to continue to apply knowledge and develop skills needed by a pharmacist to provide patient care, using a systematic patient-care process to define and achieve the goals of optimizing safe, effective pharmacotherapy. MTM 2 course content is drawn from relevant co- and pre-requisite courses. Lectures and simulated practice sessions are designed to facilitate independent and collaborative learning that will be transferrable to diverse practice settings and prepare a student for early experiential learning. Students will be responsible to perform and document a comprehensive patient assessment to identify, resolve and prevent drug therapy problems, and educate patients on the appropriate use of medications. Students will be required to assess a patient’s health status; integrate relevant information to recommend appropriate therapy, determine efficacy and safety endpoints for monitoring therapy, document a care plan, and follow-up parameters with patients to evaluate their response to therapy, in a simulated practice environment. Students will also actively participate in the medication dispensing process, prepare extemporaneously compounded pharmaceutical products, and interpret the pharmacist’s professional, ethical and legal obligation within provincial and federal frameworks.
Prerequisite: PHM101H1; PHM105H1; PHM114H1
Co-requisite:  PHM201H1; PHM202H1

PHM206H1 Medication Therapy Management 3

Medication Therapy Management 3 (MTM 3) is the third of a four-part series of simulated pharmacy practice courses that is delivered longitudinally over three years of the undergraduate program. MTM 3 builds on the skills developed in MTM 1 and MTM 2, focusing on more comprehensive, integrated patient centred care. MTM is founded on the philosophy of Pharmaceutical Care and involves a partnership between the patient, pharmacist, and other health care providers to promote safe and effective medication use to achieve desirable patient outcomes. MTM 3 provides students learning opportunities to apply and integrate materials learned through all courses in the curriculum to date, using simulated practice-based interactions to enhance their patient-care skills. Lectures will provide foundational material and skills which will be applied in the simulated interactions. Simulated interactions will focus on developing effective patient-centered management of multidimensional drug-therapy anchored in a professional context, in preparation for the student’s second year practice experiential course.
Prerequisite: PHM201H1; PHM202H1; PHM205H1; PHM212H1
Co-requisite: PHM203H1; PHM204H1; PHM230H1

PHM212H1 Research Methods for Pharmacy

Pharmacists are required to apply research evidence in practice. As health care providers, pharmacists discern and translate both the quality and relevance of health information with the goal of optimizing patient outcomes. This course introduces students to clinical trial designs typically used in health care. The course will explore core principles in experimental and non-experimental research designs. The focus will be on randomized controlled trials as they are the primary method of generating evidence for therapeutic interventions. Students will learn how various research approaches are selected, designed, executed, analyzed, published and applied (including critical appraisal). The course covers a broad range of research topics at the introductory to intermediate level. Students will develop foundational knowledge and skills in research methods, statistics and ethics that will be applied in pharmacotherapy modules.

PHM213H1 Health Economics and Pharmacoeconomics

This course surveys the economic aspects of the pharmaceutical sector.  The course will use the methods of economic analysis to investigate how markets allocate resources, when they work well and the role for government when they do not work well.  Specific topics include the economics of the development of new drugs; economic aspects of drug insurance, economic appraisal of new drugs (“pharmacoeconomics”), and economic models of the pharmacist labour market.

PHM215H1 Management:  Skills, Communication and Collaboration

Management skills and related communication and collaboration skills are essential for success in any field of pharmacy practice.  This course will provide students with an introduction to basic concepts in management, communication and collaboration with other health and business professionals, and will culminate with the development of a business plan that enables students to apply knowledge and skills.  This course is also designed to give students a broad overview in collaborative leadership theory so that they are better prepared to work effectively in their chosen field.  Students will learn how pharmacy practice in different settings has evolved from 1985 to 2000 to 2015 as well as how practice may evolve in the future. In doing so students will develop a greater appreciation of the skills required to deliver effective patient care-focused services. Overall, the aim of this course is to equip students with the ability to apply their clinical, pharmaceutical and management skills to provide high quality services that are patient focused and demonstrate value for money.
Prerequisite: PHM110H1

PHM230H1 Physical Assessment and Injection Techniques

This course will provide an introduction to the physical assessment of patients. Students will engage in lectures, on-line activities and skills practice in a laboratory setting.  This course includes modules pertaining to immunizations and the administration of substances by injection that will allow students to meet the competencies required by the Ontario College of Pharmacists.
Prerequisite: PHM143H1; PHM145H1; PHM201H1; PHM202H1, PHM205H1
Co-requisite: PHM203H1; PHM204H1; PHM206H1

PHM240H1 The Science of Pharmacotherapy

This course will build upon basic pharmacology and medicinal chemistry to make links between the basic sciences and demonstrate how basic principles can be used to improve clinical therapy.  It will also include critical evaluation of evidence for specific mechanisms and therapies.  The format of the course to address these issues will be online questions that are designed to illustrate these points.  The questions will be either multiple choice or short answer.  Online feedback will be provided.
Prerequisite: PHM140H1; PHM142H1; PHM144H1; PHM212H1

PHM241H1 Topics in Pharmaceutical Quality and Clinical Laboratory Medicine

This course will provide an introduction to pharmaceutical analysis and discuss the importance of assuring the pharmaceutical quality of medicinal products with an emphasis on establishment of quality control assays and specifications, bioequivalence testing of generic drugs, special considerations for biopharmaceutical products, and the regulatory process in Canada.  In addition, the course will discuss the application of analytic techniques in clinical laboratory medicine with a focus on commonly used tests to monitor patient health and the therapeutic use of drugs, including tests for personalized drug therapy.  The course includes a laboratory component which will present drug formulation and related quality control issues.
Prerequisite: PHM141H1; PHM144H1

PHM242H1 Microbiology of Infectious Diseases

The course provides a brief introduction to the general biology of organisms, and an overview of the host response to infection. Attention is then focused on common bacterial, fungal, viral and parasitic infections of man, and their epidemiology, prevention and treatment. Other topics include sterilization, disinfection, and a survey of antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents.
Prerequisite: PHM142H1
Co-requisite: PHM201H1

PHM251H1 Early Practice Experience 2

This course is the second of two early experiential rotations. Students will undertake EPE-2 during the summer following Year 2 (sometime between May and August). Each student will actively participate in day-to-day services within an institutional pharmacy practice setting, thus enabling application of knowledge, skills and values introduced in faculty-based courses and simulated practice environments (laboratories). Required activities include prescription/medication order processing, patient education, drug information provision, medication history taking, and observation of/participation in patient safety processes in the practice setting. Students also need to demonstrate effective communication skills, professionalism and teamwork during the rotation.
Prerequisite: PHM151H1; PHM201H1; PHM202H1; PHM203H1; PHM204H1; PHM205H1; PHM206H1