Just What the Doctor Ordered

Missouri State University is partnering with University of Missouri–Kansas City to create a pharmacy program right here in 417-land. Read on to learn about it.

By Daniel Snyder

In 417-land, healthcare is the No. 1 provider of jobs, but the pharmacy area will soon be coming up a little short-handed. A new program at Missouri State is changing that.

In October 2011, representatives from Missouri State and the University of Missouri–Kansas City signed an agreement for a doctorate of pharmacy program to be implemented at Missouri State.

“The interest in developing a pharmacy program is a substantial investment,” says Dr. Frank Einhellig, interim provost at Missouri State. “UMKC is a well-respected program, and we were not capable on our own to develop the program. We need pharmacists in our part of the state of Missouri, and it just made a lot of sense to work in a collaborative way, where they become a part of our campus.” The program is identical to the highly successful pharmacy program at UMKC, which was launched at the University of Missouri campus in Columbia in 2005.

Former Missouri State University President Michael Nietzel first made contact with UMKC about the program in 2007. “It took us time, not to agree that this was a good thing to do, but to put in place some funding from the legislature that it takes to have this satellite program here in Springfield,” says Dr. Einhellig. “We want to provide an excellent program that puts out pharmacy graduates who will be working for the most part in our region and serving the needs of the medical and healthcare community.”
Startup funds for this program came from Governor Jay Nixon’s Caring for Missourians initiative to help increase the number of healthcare professionals in the state. Launched in 2009, Caring for Missourians was a $40 million, one-time investment to provide state-funded colleges and universities better programs for educating pharmacists, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

The collaboration with UMKC is in connection with the projected shortage of pharmacists in the state of Missouri. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May of 2010, there were only 2.2 pharmacists for every 1,000 people in the workforce, making Missouri one of the many states facing a shortage in the pharmacy field. The places most effected by the shortage are the more rural areas in Missouri, such as those outside Greene County. UMKC will be hiring an associate dean of pharmacy, which will be on Missouri State’s campus directing the program.

The program will be taught primarily at Missouri State’s downtown building, Brick City, starting in fall of 2014, but students can begin doing pre-requisite coursework now. Students will be required to have a minimum of two years of pre-requisite courses before they can be accepted into the program. Missouri State will not see the first round of graduates until 2018–2019.

“It may take several years to get there, but it will mean a better supply of professionals in the area of pharmacy will enter the employment stream, thus, help the local structures that are involved with providing healthcare here,” says Dr. Einhellig. “I think this is a good story of collaboration, and one where everyone wins.”