Advising
In order to safeguard the student and patients, and to comply with the demands of institutions and other healthcare practice sites where the student may participate in experiential activities, it is necessary for students to meet a variety of requirements. These can be divided into various areas, including:
Except where otherwise indicated, students must provide official documentation that they meet these requirements prior to the beginning of the semester in which they begin their first professional classes (i.e., the P3 year). For CPR, immunizations and tuberculosis testing it will be necessary to provide official evidence that the materials are up-to-date no later than May 15th of the P2 year, with the exception of students who transferred in too late to complete the requirement or students required to get a second hepatitis B series. Students in those two situations will have an appropriate due date set to complete the requirements and will work with experiential personnel to minimize their possible exposure to hepatitis B until completion of the immunization series. If students do not do so, they will normally find that their registration in didactic and experiential components of the curriculum will be cancelled (i.e., they will be withdrawn from any courses with an experiential requirement) and they will not be able to participate in any training whatsoever. Failure to comply may delay and/or prevent a student’s planned graduation date.
Each of the requirements will be dealt with separately below. Please note, most of these will have an associated cost that will be paid by the student, although some are covered by University fees.
Students are required to have continuous certification as having completed a Healthcare Providers Basic Life Support Course by the American Heart Association. More advanced certification by that organization is also acceptable. Such certification is only good for up to a two year period of time. Therefore, students are required to take the course during the first two weeks of may prior to the P3 year and be recertified during the first two weeks of May prior to the P5 year. Transfer students admitted after May 1 of the P2 year will have to take the CPR course within one month of admission and will not be able to participate in experiential until that requirement is completed. In cases where students are delayed in completing the curriculum, they will have to change their recertification schedule to remain current and will likely be required to take one or more additional recertification courses. This requirement cannot be met by completing courses offered by other organizations, such as the American Red Cross or National Safety Council CPR.
P5 students are required to obtain an American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification during the P5 year and are required to keep that certification current throughout the P6 year.
The College of Pharmacy will arrange for these courses to be offered, although students can take them elsewhere.
The University of Findlay College of Pharmacy requires students to have a background check between March 15 and May 15 before beginning P6 professional year. Failure to submit to this check will prevent entry into that year. This check is necessary because of requirements by experiential sites and accrediting agencies. You may be required to do additional criminal background checks by either the College of Pharmacy or experiential site(s).
You will be required to provide identifying information, and a payment for this service (payment is your responsibility and not of the University of Findlay or College of Pharmacy). The results will be provided to The University of Findlay College of Pharmacy, with a copy remaining in your permanent record. You will also receive your own copy of the report.
A criminal background check must be obtained from Verified Credentials (http://www.myvci.com/findlay ) during March 15 to May 15 of the P5 year in preparation for advanced experiential rotations. This is different from that required by the State of Ohio for initial licensure. This is done online (http://www.myvci.com/findlay), and requires a credit card. The current cost is $55, which may change without notice. There is an additional charge for non-U.S. citizens.
Although not required for the College of Pharmacy, it is important to note that individual experiential sites may require testing for students to participate in activities at their location. Students are required to comply with these requirements. Experiential assignments will not be changed in order to avoid such requirements.
HIPAA mandated regulations to protect the privacy of information that is in electronic form. Students are required to satisfactorily complete requirements for this training. The College will provide this training prior to the beginning of obtaining experiential training.
Students are required to have successfully completed immunizations or immunization series, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prior to the matriculation in the College of Pharmacy. If it is not possible to complete the immunizations because of time (e.g., hepatitis B), an automatic extension of the deadline for completion of the requirement will be instituted. The following immunizations are required of all students, except in those with documented contraindications (e.g., allergy):
· Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (Tdap)– please note that the pertussis component was not approved for adults until 2005. Also, this immunization is good for a maximum of ten years. If it has been at least ten years since a previous booster (either Tdap or Diphtheria/Tetanus [Td]), a booster must be obtained. If a booster is due, the student must get a Tdap, unless Tdap has previously been administered.
· Hepatitis B, recombinant series (note, this consists of a minimum three injection series over at least six months), followed 6-8 weeks later by a blood antibody titer. Please note, if the titer is negative, according to CDC recommendations, the entire series and titer must be repeated. This should start immediately and students will automatically receive the necessary extension of the deadline of this requirement, providing they continue to pursue it as scheduled. If this extension is beyond the beginning of the P3 year, it may be necessary to change experiential sites. Also, students who have a negative titer after a second series may have their experiential sites adjusted to help protect them, but students must be aware that if they have negative titers they may be susceptible to the disease and are responsible for taking personal safety precautions.
· Measles (except in those individuals born before 1957) – Must have two doses after their first birthday. The second dose must have been received after December 31, 1979.
· Mumps (except in those individuals born before 1957) – Immunization must have occurred after the student was 12 years old.
· Rubella (except in those individuals born before 1957) – Immunization must have occurred after the student was 15 months of age.
· Varicella (except in those individuals born before 1957) – A varicella titer is also required after immunization.
In the cases of each of these, exceptions are allowed for physician-diagnosed illness, including month and year (except rubella) or a report of an immune titer sufficient to provide immunity.
In some cases, additional immunizations may be required for specific experiential sites (e.g., polio, hepatitis A, smallpox, anthrax, malaria, meningococcal).
It is necessary for you to obtain information regarding the immunizations you currently have received. If you do not already have some of this information, your parents/guardian may have some information that may be of help. However, you need to get the official information from a physician, hospital, medical clinic or other healthcare facility. You should record the information on the form approved by the Cosiano Health Center (available through the College of Pharmacy) and submit it with the official documentation to the Cosiano Health Center. They will be collating the data and letting us know what students have not met the requirements.
Students not meeting immunization requirements are not eligible for progression to the P3 year without approval of the Student Affairs Committee. Deadlines are automatically extended by an appropriate length of time for transfer students admitted with insufficient time to complete these requirements prior to the P3 year, but this is overseen by the Assistant/Associate Dean of Internal Affairs who must be shown progress in this area. Also, it may be necessary to change experiential sites, depending on the site immunization requirements until immunizations are completed.
If you find that you need to have some immunizations, the Cosiano Health Center can provide them, which may result in substantial savings to the student. Also, please realize that you may be able to get immunizations for little or no cost through your physician (i.e., paid for by your insurance) or possibly health departments where you live. You certainly should investigate what will be best for you.
Students are required to obtain pharmacy intern license as soon as possible in the State of Ohio (application must be within the first month of the P3 year) and any other states in which they may be active in a pharmacy practice situation. In the latter situation, some states may have other requirements for practice, such as having a technician certificate. Normally, this will be at the beginning of the first professional year, however, some states have other requirements, such as waiting until after the first professional year. The College of Pharmacy will provide information to the State of Ohio at appropriate times showing that you are a continuing student. The College will verify your Ohio permit via the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy website prior to you obtaining your experience. In addition, students obtaining experience outside of Ohio must submit to the College copies of intern license(s)/permit(s) from the appropriate government agencies. Please note, all students must have a State of Ohio intern license, even if they do not ever plan to practice in the state.
All students who will be enrolled in practical experience programs are required to have malpractice insurance. This coverage is provided by The University of Findlay for all full time pharmacy students. In addition, an individual student professional liability insurance policy is purchased through the College of Pharmacy. Students will have to fill out an enrollment form for this policy.
A physical examination is required during the period of March 1 to April 15 prior tof the beginning of advanced clinical experiences. The record of this exam must be given to the Cosiano Health Center. Specific clinical sites may also require separate examinations. Students must comply with their requirements.
Students are required to be tested at least annually for tuberculosis, starting during the spring prior to their first professional year. This must be done during the period of March 1 to April 15. This is normally accomplished using a two-step tuberculin skin test (not the Tine test), but may be satisfied by a test performed using the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Test. Students with a previous positive to either of these tests, including those who have received the BCG vaccine, will be required to have a chest x-ray or QuantiFERON-TB Gold Test, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov ). Students exposed to a known tuberculosis patient may be required to be tested more frequently. Also, individual practice sites may have more stringent requirements, which must be met.
Compliance with this requirement will be monitored by the Cosiano Health Center. Students can either get the test there during the scheduled timeframe or may submit medical documentation that they received such a test and the results during that timeframe.
Students are required to obtain College-approved training in Universal Precautions for prevention of infectious disease transmission. Students will receive this training during the P3 year and must satisfactorily complete the requirements for certification in that subject.
Students are required to obtained College of Pharmacy approved immunization training prior to giving any immunizations.
