School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences preparing for self-study

Faculty and staff in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences are getting ready for the next self-study process.

Required by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the self-study is an ongoing process of the School’s accreditation to ensure the quality of the program and continuous achievement of the program’s goals.

Adam Woolley is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and the Director of Assessment in the School. He’s collaborating with Leigh Plant, assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the rest of the School to put together a comprehensive review of what the school is doing and how they’re meeting their goals.
The self-study process is typically done every eight years, if the School receives full accreditation. The School’s last self-study was in 2015 so the team is preparing to undergo the process again in 2023.

ACPE evaluates the program on 25 different standards organized into three broad groups: educational outcomes, structure and process, and assessment. Since there is so much information that must be included in the review, Woolley says there is a self-study committee that has been broken up into subcommittees where each group is assigned various standards.

“We’re always looking to improve. There’s a lot of things we do well and we’re also very open to feedback,” said Woolley. “I think that’s something that will ultimately be captured in the self-study so we can make sure we’re continually building upon our strengths using assessment data to improve and adapt and ensure we deliver high-quality education to our pharmacy students to meet the demands of today’s workforce.”

Woolley says that means growing and adapting and not continuing to do things just because it’s the way they’ve always been done.

That’s why the School is currently going through a curriculum revision with the plan to roll out a new curriculum in the fall of 2023.

“It’s certainly a challenge to be undergoing a curriculum revision at the same time as a self-study, but at the same time, it’s also very important and shows that we’re doing the things we need to do what’s right for our students,” said Woolley. “I think this is a great opportunity to describe the great things that we’re doing.”

ACPE will visit Northeastern for a multi-day site visit in October of 2023.