By: Jeff Beach
FARGO (North Dakota Monitor) — An agreement between North Dakota State University and Dickinson State University aims to fill the need for pharmacists in the western part of the state.
The agreement signed Wednesday will allow students at Dickinson State to take pre-pharmacy classes, either online or a hybrid format. High-achieving students at Dickinson may qualify for early admission to NDSU’s doctor of pharmacy program, the only such program in the state.
The program launches in the spring semester.
Amy Werremeyer, professor and chair of the NDSU College of Pharmacy, said Dickinson State can help fill a big geographic hole of pharmacy school access.
“Western North Dakota, Dickinson, is smack dab in the middle of that hole,” she said.
NDSU is the closest pharmacy college to Dickinson, even though the Fargo campus is nearly 300 miles away.
“We really see a lot of opportunity for attracting people to Dickinson to train to enter the profession of pharmacy,” said Werremeyer, who grew up in Dickinson with her parents running a pharmacy.
President David Cook said part of NDSU’s mission as a land grant university is to serve the whole state.
“We know there are health care needs in just about every discipline, in every area, and extending our reach out to western North Dakota and Dickinson is really quite important,” Cook said.
There are about 30 active job postings for pharmacists across the state, with more than half of those in western North Dakota.
Scott Molander is a western North Dakota native who was named Dickinson State president in March.
“The most important thing is we’re taking care of our students and our communities,” Molander said.
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