Adapting Pharmacy Education to Meet Needs During a Pandemic

Ed Foote, dean, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, discusses ways the school adapted to the needs of students and to maintain education during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Ed Foote: The changes to student learning has really been dramatic. Towards the middle of march, we essentially went totally remote, as many universities in the region did. Such that students learned online. Many of our classes were what we call were simultaneous. So, they were student- the faculty would hold classes and then students would sign in, usually to a zoom account, and we’d have classes. Some of our, the learning was done asynchronously. Where there might be some recorded lectures and we even did examinations at home. So that students were tested at home on the computer.

The other part of our educational model is the experiential learning, rotations. All the rotations were affected as well. Many of our students had to also do rotations remotely. Luckily, we had just minor interruptions to the learning, and we were able to reschedule many students. But it was challenging semester for everybody involved, students as well as faculty.