UMKC Pharmacy Program makes home in Columbia

COLUMBIA—On a Monday afternoon, third-year pharmacy students gather for pharmacology class in the new Health Sciences Building at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. More than 120 miles away at the MU campus, 27 additional UMKC pharmacy students take their seats in a small classroom inside the Academic Support Center.

In the Health Sciences Building at UMKC, the professor stands in front of the class. In the Academic Support Center, the only way to see the professor is to look at the large projector screen at the end of the room.

The 27 students are used to this distance relationship with all of their pharmacy professors. They are in their third year of the pharmacy satellite program and will be the first class in the program to earn their Doctor of Pharmacy degrees.

In addition to the 95 students admitted each fall to the traditional program on the UMKC campus, 28 students are admitted each fall to the satellite program at MU. Both the traditional and satellite programs take five years to complete after admission.

The satellite program students take all of the program’s core classes and some electives by satellite. All other electives are taken at MU. Even though the satellite students attend classes at MU, they are considered UMKC students. They will graduate on the UMKC campus and earn their degrees through UMKC.

According to Kathleen Snella, the assistant dean for the UMKC school of pharmacy satellite program, the program is necessary to combat the recent shortages of pharmacists across the nation.

“People are living much longer, and they are requiring much more medicine,” Snella said.

In order to educate more pharmacists across the state, MU and UMKC established the program. UMKC is the only state-supported pharmacy school in Missouri. In the past, students would have to move away from Columbia in order to pursue a pharmacy degree, but now they have the option to remain in Columbia. Snella says that they are counting on some of the students in Columbia to stay and work in the area after they graduate.

“A lot of the shortage is right down the middle of the state,” Snella said. “If only a few students stay in the area after graduation, that will still help.”

According to Snella, the program has been successful, despite having a rough beginning with the technology. During the first year of the program, UMKC had not finished the new Health Sciences Building and the pharmacy classes were in a building that was not compatible with the technology the program used.

“As far as technology goes, the new building is designed to go along with the new technology used by the satellite program,” Snella said. “In the old building we would sometimes have bad sound, pixilation and lag during broadcasts.”

Paula Boettler, a third-year pharmacy student, remembers days when the technology failed during class and they had to watch a video of the lecture later on.

“It was sometimes really frustrating because it took us extra time to get the same information that the Kansas City students had received,” Boettler said.

Despite Boettler’s occasional frustration with the technology, she says she has appreciated the option to stay in Columbia.

“I was already established in Columbia with a family and a home,” Boettler said. “The last thing that I wanted to do was to pack everything up and move to a big ciy.”

Snella says the program still faces more challenges.

“The third-year Columbia students will be doing clinicals next year,” Snella said. “We have not had a class do clinicals here, so it’s definitely something that we are anxious about.”

Snella says she is confident that the clinicals will work out because she has already been impressed with the community.

“The biggest thing that I’m happy about is that the community has been helping out,” Snella said. “They have been very receptive with providing us training sites.”