UNR hopes pharmacy school comes to fruition

The University of Nevada, Reno envisions opening a school of pharmacy by the fall of 2009, says Iain Buxton, planning dean for the University of Nevada School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Buxton believes the school could come into existence in July but the big question mark is approval of $75 million in state funding for a Health Sciences Center Building on the School of Medicine campus.

Nurses, physicians and doctors of pharmacy would be schooled at the center.

"They will all train together, and the faculty will interact," Buxton says. "This is not a silo mentality. We will integrate the education of pharmacists with nurses and physicians."

The degree program would be split between UNR and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The UNR School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences would support the first two years of training, and students would complete their education in southern Nevada. Students who start their training at UNLV would finish it at UNR. Buxton says the split would allow students get the best of both institutions.

The plan rides heavily on approval of funding in this year's legislative session. The request is not part of the governor's budget proposal. The same proposal was placed before Gov. Kenny Guinn in 2005, and ultimately it was not funded.

"We are requesting, frankly, a very modest amount of money to run a pharmacy school," Buxton says. "The university has invested in the idea, the educational system of Nevada has invested in it, but nobody knows about funding. However, in my judgment it will happen."

A look at the numbers paints a picture of the state's demand:

Nevada has about 1,800 licensed pharmacists serving a population of roughly 2.4 million people. That's 75 pharmacists per 100,000 citizens.

A study by the New York Center for Health Workforce Studies late last year found an average of 77 pharmacists per 100,000 people across the country.

Nevada has about 1,800 licensed pharmacists serving a population of roughly 2.4 million people. That's 75 pharmacists per 100,000 citizens. But Nevada's rural areas have few pharmacists: 31 per 100,000.

Of the state's 16 counties, Storey, Esmeralda, Eureka and Pershing don't have a licensed, full-time pharmacist practicing within the county lines Clark County has the most with 1,398, but those practitioners serve 1.8 million people (77 per 100,000).

That demand is a boon for graduating pharmacy students. Buxton recounts a confidential offer made by a northern Nevada retailer to a student who will graduate this semester from the University of Colorado: $5,000 up front, $10,000 a year for three years, and a base salary of $130,000.

"We don't think that is unusual," Buxton says.

In 1999 the University of Southern Nevada opened a school of pharmacy. The private school accepts 140 students a year, with roughly 40-45 hailing from Nevada. Cost for the three-year degree program is more than $100,000. By comparison, UNR's tuition would place the cost of the same degree at $13,000. Nevada currently subsidizes five students each year to attend publicly supported pharmacy colleges out of state through the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

Buxton advocates educational competition within the state.

"If there are two schools, both will be better," he says, "and students will have a genuine choice. We are trying to create an educational structure where we will graduate larger numbers of practitioners. (But) we may (clash) because we will dig into their profit structure if we exist."

Unlike University of Southern Nevada's intensive three-year program, the UNR school of pharmacy would be a four-year program after two years of standard prerequisite coursework.

The school is projected to graduate approximately 40 new pharmacists by 2012 and 100 new pharmacists each year by 2015. Buxton sees it as a heavily research-intensive school with Nevada-based scientists and professors generating intellectual property around medical problems.

"Our faculty will be hired specialists with research, training and experience," he says. "There will be these engines of research to partner with existing strengths both public and private within the state."

"One school in Nevada is not the answer," he adds. "We already have two medical schools and eight for nursing, and it's pretty clear it's not enough. It's time for Nevadans to think long-term about healthcare."