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Lab gives pharmacy students real-world experience The MUSC College of Pharmacy will soon build a new pharmacy practice lab to help students learn the real-world process of dispensing medications and patient care in a community pharmacy, thanks to a recent $250,000 gift from CVS/Pharmacy. Designed to emulate the work area of a CVS/pharmacy, the new facility will help students understand aspects of pharmacy practice that cannot be taught within the confines of a traditional classroom, said Pharmacy Dean John Cormier, Pharm.D.  “There are intricacies involved in community pharmacy that are difficult to learn unless you practice them in a realistic setting,” said Cormier. “This learning lab will replicate what our students will encounter when they go out into the community pharmacy. They’ll learn more about the multiple steps involved in filling a prescription—everything from gathering patient information and entering the data into a patient profile to looking for potential problems and dispensing the product.” The new 1,038-square-foot laboratory, which will be housed on the college’s fourth floor, will resemble a community pharmacy in almost every aspect. The entrance will feature a prescription counter façade and bays stocked with empty over-the-counter and prescription packaging.  Behind the mock pharmacy, the college will build a practice laboratory and teaching facility with six workstations for student group work, counters for compounding, and cabinetry for equipment and supply storage.  The center also will strive to recreate the interpersonal dynamics typically found in a community pharmacy. Through role-playing, students will learn how to interact with their patients in a manner that ultimately will raise the level of care available to them. “Community pharmacists today are more centrally involved in the delivery of health care services than in the past,” said Cormier. “They are often engaged in some level of drug therapy, patient counseling and monitoring, so it is vitally important that they know how to communicate effectively with patients. This center will help them acquire those skills.” Stephen W. Greene, the company’s manager of professional and college relations, said CVS/Pharmacy decided to help build the facility because it would add great depth to the community-pharmacy aspects of the college’s curriculum.  “CVS/Pharmacy is pleased to support the construction of the Professional Practice Laboratory,” said Greene. “Pharmacy is the heart and soul of our business. The impact made by the profession of pharmacy in America increases in importance with greater prescription drug utilization. It is essential to give future pharmacists the training and tools necessary to meet this demand. CVS is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this effort.”           Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.