SIUE Pharmacy Faculty and Staff Receive National Recognition in Teaching Innovation

SIUE Pharmacy Faculty and Staff Receive National Recognition in Teaching Innovation

July 26, 2024, 2:45 PM

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) was recently awarded with the national Innovation in Teaching Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy for their innovative project, "Making an 'ImPaCT (Improving Patient Care for Tomorrow)': A longitudinal, required innovation curriculum to address practice-based problems." The program is led by Kate Newman, PharmD, Director of Experiential Education and a clinical associate professor with the Department of Pharmacy Practice, a 2010 SIUE alumnae, and 2004 alumnae Tessa Keys. The program was launched by Cindy Wuller, clinical professor and capstone coordinator.

"Professor Wuller built an incredible program and we felt fortunate to be entrusted with it after her retirement." Newman said. "We were able to use the foundation she built as the core of our current curriculum while making some adjustments to meet the needs of our current students."

Newman and Keys built on the Capstone project which led to the creation of the ImPaCT program. The program is a scholarly project which helps students apply their didactic knowledge in working through a real-world problem to enhance patient care. The program includes two main components.

The first component features a longitudinal innovation curriculum of traditional classes during the students first three years of the PharmD program. The second component is a large-scale innovation that students complete while collaborating with a pharmacist mentor at a practice site during the students' final year of the PharmD curriculum. Students write a manuscript, produce a three-minute-long video, and present a poster related to their project.

Students complete projects that often get incorporated into the pharmacy practice environment within the local and national region. The award will shine light on the SIUE Pharmacy Program that works hard to provide students with the best possible future.
Keys hopes this award will allow students to feel pride in their work. Keys added that she hopes perspective students will want to be part of the program to gain experience in the real world. The two look forward to growing the program and finding new ways to be successful.

"Tessa and I are so proud of the work our students do and the impact they are making on healthcare in our region," Newman said. "We're grateful for this award which has provided us an opportunity to share the incredible work our students, and mentors do every year!"

PHOTO: Award winners and SIUE alumni Kate Newman and Tessa Keys