WVU Pharmacy students can expect an enhanced learning facility in 2020

A new Pharmacy Skills Development Center, designed to prepare student pharmacists for an evolving role in health care, will open in 2020 at the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy in Morgantown.

The School is relocating and expanding the former Center for Pharmaceutical Care Education from the eighth floor of the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center (HSC) South to the third floor of the HSC North. The new location is in alignment with two other floors in the same wing of the building that are currently occupied by the School. 

The Pharmacy Skills Development Center is 7,650 square feet of fully renovated space. It will house a state of the art compounding lab, innovatively designed group rooms to foster contemporary practice, as well as a new technology area.

“This facility signifies the School and University’s commitment to providing our students with education and skills which will position them for optimizing their professional practice when they graduate and well into the future,” said Dean William Petros. “While production of individual pharmaceutical products (compounding) remains an important skill, our profession is rapidly evolving, necessitating students routinely work as an integral part of the healthcare team, and to be familiar with advanced monitoring and testing technology essential for optimal care.”

Work on the new center started in August, and students will begin to use the facility in Spring 2020. The WVU School of Pharmacy, ranked in the top 40 nationally, was founded over 100 years ago and has a mission to improve the health and well-being of West Virginians and our global community by developing exemplary pharmacists and scientists; conducting meaningful research; and advancing pharmacy practice.