Two pharmacy students working with a human simulator during a lab exercise
Graduate & Professional | In-Person

Doctor of Pharmacy, PharmD

Launch your future career as a pharmacist with Belmont's customizable PharmD program in the nation's health care capital.

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College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

Lauren Lauzon
Admissions Director
615.460.6107
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Searching for the right pharmacy school? 

Belmont University's PharmD program equips you with the skills needed for a thriving career in pharmacy.

Our curriculum offers specialized concentrations in advanced pharmacotherapy, health informatics, management, and public health & mission. This allows you to tailor your education to your career goals. 

Real world preparation is one of our biggest priorities. This is why we offer simulations and collaborative environments that promote cross-practice learning and a team approach to patient care—exactly like you’ll see on the job. Our dedicated, expert faculty bring their real-life expertise and passion to prepare students for real-world practice—while cultivating a Christ-centered community of learning and service.

Location is everything. As the nation's healthcare capital, Nashville boasts a $92 million health care industry, more than 500 health care companies, and many major healthcare facilities. Our hometown offers a wealth of clinical and professional opportunities to students pursuing a pharmacy degree. 

Start your journey with us and prepare for the rewarding career you've always wanted.

What You'll Learn 

You'll learn from expert faculty who are committed to impacting the health care system and those they serve in meaningful ways.

Belmont's concentrations allow you to determine which aspect of pharmacy you want to practice, and focus your educational journey to match.

  • Advanced Pharmacotherapy: Explore a variety of ambulatory care sites like Vanderbilt Medical Center, Saint Thomas West Hospital, and Rolling Hills Hospital, to community & independent pharmacies and clinics. Belmont’s relationship with countless partners across Nashville--the nation's health care capital--provides our students with meaningful connection to practice sites and job placement after graduation.
  • Health Informatics: Students have worked with locally headquartered Amazon to create artificial intelligence software for Amazon Alexa.
  • Public Health & Missions: Students have the opportunity to explore work with patients across many populations and backgrounds at Siloam Family Health Center, a comprehensive community health clinic and The Next Door, an addiction treatment center—supporting Belmont's aim to be radical champions for all.
  • Management: P4 students can serve as the staff pharmacist on rotation at Belmont’s own on-campus pharmacy. We are just one of several PharmD programs in the U.S. to offer an embedded pharmacy within our program.

 

Doctor of Pharmacy

By the Numbers

96%
of Admitted Candidates Receive a 4-Year Scholarship
8:1
Student-to-Faculty Ratio
8+
Countries traveled for Missions & Study Abroad
89%
of 2022 Graduates are in a position that aligns with short or long term career goals
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Program Details

Beyond the required courses, which can be seen in the University Catalog, you'll take 30 credit hours of electives to build upon the foundation of pharmacy coursework with at least 18 credit hours in your selected concentration.

View PharmD Curriculum and Course Descriptions in the Belmont University Catalog.

New Integrated Curriculum

Curricular Vision and Philosophy

The Belmont University PharmD curriculum is designed to prepare graduates to provide exceptional patient care, be leaders in the profession of pharmacy, work collaboratively with other health professions, and serve humanity. Additionally, the curriculum will prepare the graduate to help those most in need with an intentional focus on strategies to improve health equity. 

Purposeful planning occurred to align the curriculum with Belmont’s Christ-centered, student-focused mission by ensuring student success in the classroom and after graduation. The curriculum is delivered in an integrated modular format using a blend of traditional didactic instruction and innovative active learning to engage all learners.

  • A robust integrated pharmacotherapy sequence is designed to empower the student with knowledge and critical thinking skills to provide exceptional patient care.
  • The student will develop leadership skills and learn strategies to advance pharmacy practice in order to lead the profession.
  • P1s will start rotation experiences in their first semester.
  • Frequent interprofessional experiences and integration of health care technology give the student the ability to work collaboratively with other health professions.
  • Opportunities for mission work and exposure to research prepare the student for service to humanity.
  • Our longitudinal pharmacy skills lab allows students to apply concepts learned in the classroom. 

Why an Integrated Curriculum?

Evidence shows that students who learn therapeutic knowledge along with the science behind the intervention may be more able to apply their scientific knowledge in the clinical setting.1 It allows the graduate to connect science with clinical decision-making. This synthesis of information allows the student to apply that knowledge to scenarios that they may not have encountered in the classroom. Additionally, data show that this approach may increase both clinical and scientific knowledge.2 Finally, we were encouraged by feedback from our students and graduates that this approach may help increase retention of knowledge while reducing duplication of material resulting in a right-sized didactic experience.

This has resulted in the creation of a unique series of introductory courses, Integrated Pharmaceutical Sciences, where the foundational science of biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutics, and pharmacogenomics will be taught together. This approach is designed to reduce duplication of topics, allow for application, and at the same time enhance student learning.

Finally, the choice was made to build a longitudinal skills lab where concepts taught in the classroom will be used to practice skills necessary for pharmacy practice. This lab will follow classroom learning and integrate various skills to help develop graduates with a comprehensive toolbox of abilities. In the lab, students will learn basic pharmacy skills alongside dosage form preparation (compounding), physical assessment with patient interview techniques, drug information combined with pharmacy informatics to help guide clinical decision making. The curriculum is designed for the modern pharmacy graduate that needs to integrate multiple skills with foundational and clinical knowledge to provide exceptional patient care.

Concentrations

Advanced Pharmacotherapy

All student pharmacists at Belmont acquire skills and competencies in direct patient care, age-related variances in therapy and all levels of treatment from intensive care to self-care. To complement these important competencies, students who elect the Advanced Pharmacotherapy concentration will choose from a wide variety of specialty electives and experiences focusing on specific disease processes or patient populations such as hospice, oncology, geriatrics, pediatrics, pharmacy compounding and pharmaceutical research.

Healthcare Informatics

Student pharmacists at Belmont who choose the Healthcare Informatics concentration will have the opportunity to experience multiple sites that utilize electronic health records, dashboard data for production efficiency, drug interaction data, clinical decision support information, robotic processing methods, supply chain information, as well as the sites that propose and design such systems. These experiential opportunities are enhanced through a number of electives focusing on Healthcare Information and Management systems.

Pharmacy Management

All student pharmacists at Belmont learn foundational principles in management, but within the concentration, students have the opportunity to take a deeper dive into management principles through their elective choices. These students will work side by side with pharmacists who are focused on advanced personnel management, hospital pharmacy administration, contract and financial management, LEAN processes, health economics, quality improvement methods, and negotiation skills.

Public Health/Missions

Above all else, the profession of pharmacy is about serving others. At Belmont, students who choose the public health/missions concentration have the opportunity to take electives and work collaboratively with other healthcare providers to serve a wide array of patients. Student pharmacists may have the opportunity to serve refugees, indigent and marginalized patients. There are also travel opportunities to serve patients in developing countries.

Learn and serve outside the classroom

As a Belmont PharmD student, your opportunities are endless.

You can work in Belmont's on-campus pharmacy, research in the lab, pursue internships and volunteer in the Nashville community. Because of Belmont's unique mission-minded, Christ-centered community, students are empowered to make the world around them a better place.

Dozens of students in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences live this out each year through mission trips across the country and throughout the world.

Student Organizations

At Belmont, learning doesn't stop in the classroom. Student organizations create more opportunities to engage and build meaningful experiences. There are many existing organizations Pharmacy students can join, or if you don't see what you're looking for, the process to start a new one is simple and streamlined.

The College of Pharmacy annually admits an ideal class of 70 to 75 students to the professional entry-level Doctorate (PharmD), to begin the program each Fall.

The College of Pharmacy receives applications for admission and most applicant credentials exclusively through the Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS), provided by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).

Learn more about Admissions Requirements and Process

Start your PharmCAS Application

View Belmont's PharmCAS directory information

On average, 96% of admitted candidates receive a 4-year scholarship between $6,000 and $100,000. 

View available scholarship opportunities

Pharmacy Mission trip photo of 2 Belmont students with young children.Embark on a transformative journey with our pharmacy program as we present unique medical mission opportunities in countries across the globe, including Honduras, Guatemala, and many more to come. Alongside students, faculty, and providers across the interprofessional healthcare spectrum, mission trip participants make a meaningful impact on underserved populations by applying the skills and expertise acquired throughout our pharmacy curriculum.  By participating in these missions, students not only contribute to the well-being of those in need but also emerge as compassionate and equipped individuals, ready to make the world a better place. This is an unparalleled chance to integrate knowledge into action, bridging the gap between education and service while embodying the principles that define our institution.

Belmont Students posing for a photo inside a classroom meant for children

A view of two Pharmacy students discussing a medication from the other side of a medicine shelf

Career Possibilities

Belmont's pharmacy graduates find great success in all aspects of pharmacy practice. And as healthcare becomes more and more reliant on interdisciplinary, team-based approaches, pharmacists are continually called on to provide more wellness and preventative care, chronic care maintenance, community health education and public health advocacy.

Graduates have gone on to successfully find career opportunities from local independent outlets, to retail chains, hospitals, long-term care facilitates, medical clinics, public health agencies and more. 89% of the Class of 2022 are currently employed in a position that meets their long or short term career goals.

Katie's Story

"During my time at Belmont’s School of Pharmacy, one of my professors, Dr. Thompson-Odom, had a positive impact on my life. She believed in my abilities to pull through rough times, even when I didn’t. Her support helped me develop a sense of security in my abilities when I faced what seem like unsurmountable challenges."

- Katie Vandenberg, Pharm.D., Class of 2016

Shaneika Guice

Shaneika's Story

“Belmont allowed me to be true to myself and helped me grow deeper in who I am in Christ. It’s important to me to show others that if you lean into God, He will make a way when it seems like there is no way-- I am a walking example of that. I always thought I wouldn’t be qualified to be in a role like the one I am today, but now I know that God qualifies me. I love how God has pre-written each of our stories so uniquely and unfolds His plans for us in such a beautiful way.”

Shaneika Guice, Pharm.D., Class of 2014