Mission

The Office of Postgraduate Professional Education (OPPE) at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy was created in June 1999 to coordinate administrative responsibilities for the School of Pharmacy's Nontraditional Doctor of Pharmacy (NTPD) degree program and Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) programs.

The Office of Postgraduate Professional Education strives to provide excellent, accessible, and contemporary pharmacy educational opportunities to meet the educational needs and support the continuing professional development of practicing pharmacists in the state of Colorado and elsewhere, and to support the respective missions of the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy and its Department of Clinical Pharmacy.

In support of its mission, the OPPE will perform the following primary functions:

Administer the Nontraditional Doctor of Pharmacy (distance delivery pathway) program and support the NTPD students in their efforts to complete the degree;
Design and deliver continuing pharmacy education programs for target audiences according to the quality criteria and definition of continuing education of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and its Vision Statement for Pharmacy Practice in 2015, and consistent with the principles of continuing professional development;
Accredit educational programs developed by other organizations if the programs meet all the educational criteria of the OPPE;
Conduct scholarly activities that contribute to the body of knowledge relating to educational methods, effectiveness, and design.

To accomplish its mission, the OPPE has established the following goals:

To conduct educational needs assessments of target audiences on an ongoing basis;
To provide high quality, effective learning opportunities that accommodate the identified educational needs of pharmacists and incorporate active learning methods;
To disseminate new information concerning pharmacotherapy and promoting the competence of pharmacists to deliver patient-centered care, work on interdisciplinary teams, practice evidence-based medicine, continually improve quality, and use information technology**;
To continuously improve CPE programs of the School of Pharmacy through ongoing evaluation of their effectiveness;
To contribute to the improvement of continuing pharmacy education by designing, developing, evaluating and incorporating new educational methods and media, including distance delivery, into CPE, and by contributing to the body of applied knowledge in CPE;
To seek ways to provide some of the educational material from the academic content of the Nontraditional Doctor of Pharmacy program to a wider audience of pharmacists;
To maintain administrative and fiscal responsibility to foster innovation and improvement;
To seek to implement the concept of continuing professional development to the profession of pharmacy.

**Adapted from Institute of Medicine's Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, April 2003.

Last updated: 8/23/06