The objectives of the Pharmacy Practice Department is to impart patient oriented pharmacy education, train the students in Clinical Pharmacy services at par with international standards and also to provide clinical pharmacy services to the patients The department caters to the needs of health care providers by working shoulder to shoulder with clinicians, nurses and all other paramedical staff. The specific activities carried out by the department in patient care settings include Pharmaceutical care services, Antibiotic stewardship, Anticoagulation management, Patient counselling, Medication reconciliation, Pharmacovigilance, Drug information services, Community outreach programs including health screening and health education. The department periodically organizes seminars and workshops at the national and international level.
The faculty members in the department have ample clinical exposure in national and/or international hospitals. In addition, faculty members are either PhD holders or pursuing PhD, hence are able to train the students by providing ample exposure in clinical settings to deliver clinical pharmacy services and guide the students to carryout high quality health care research in the areas like Pharmacoepidemiology, Pharmacovigilance, Quality use of medicines, Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes research. The faculty members and students work as a team to deliver clinical pharmacy services at two major hospitals in central Kerala- VPS Lakeshore hospital and Lourdes hospital and Post graduate research Centre. Electronic database “Uptodate” with adequate number of computers, standard texts & references, national and international journals are made available at patient care settings.
SJCP Reach Out- a biannual News letter of the department highlights the clinical practice changing updates, newly approved drugs by FDA and CDSCO, and showcase clinical activities by the students at different hospitals including internship postings at various major hospitals in India.
PharmD Program:
This is a six-year professional program leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. This course is unique because it combines patient care services and health care research. The program emphasizes an integrated, problem-based approach to Pharmacotherapeutic management, which constitutes the core of the didactic study plan. PharmD comprises of five years of classroom/hospital-based didactic study and a research project followed by one-year’s internship. Core subjects include Pharmacotherapeutics, hospital and Community Pharmacy, Clinical Pharmacy, Clinical Toxicology, Clinical Research, Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, Biostatistics and Research Methodology and Clerkship. The first batch successfully graduated in September 2020.