SDSU pharmacy continuing ed reaccredited

Regulators have granted another six years of accreditation to South Dakota State University’s continuing education program for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
The announcement earlier this year from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education continues accreditation through Jan. 31, 2028.
In South Dakota, pharmacists are required to have 12 hours of continuing education annually while pharmacy technicians are required to have 20 hours.
Dan Hansen, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, called reaccreditation “a huge accomplishment” and extended credit to Scout Forbes-Hurd, the new faculty member who prepared the reaccreditation report.
Forbes-Hurd, a 2011 SDSU graduate who had worked at Brookings Health System as a hospital inpatient pharmacist since graduating, was hired Dec. 21, 2020, following the retirement of Bernie Hendricks. The report was due to the accreditation council Sept. 1, 2021.
 
Big assignment for new hire
“I had eight months to compile this report, to document what we had done the last six years, that we were going to do it again and expand the program,” said Forbes-Hurd, who also has a 20% teaching load and coordinates experiential education for SDSU pharmacy students.
“The ACPE is the only fully recognized accreditation agency … They don’t just give this (accreditation) to anybody and everybody. It is a lot of work. It sets high standards and we’re required to abide by the highest of standards. It involves a lot of work and organization and reliance on clinical experts out in the field.
“We’re just so fortunate that people are so willing to help and provide the education to others out in the field.
“These training courses are created specifically for our program and must meet certain standards and have to be peer-reviewed. We have to provide learning objectives and assessment questions to make sure the learner understands the program,” said Forbes-Hurd, who notes the college has 20 programs on its website in addition to continuing education programs offered at the annual meetings of South Dakota Pharmacists Association and the South Dakota Society of Health System Pharmacists.
Those live programs also must be reviewed by Forbes-Hurd before they are presented to be sure they meet accreditation standards.
 
Courses now available online
Before 2021, the SDSU continuing education courses were offered correspondence style, either pen-and-paper mail-it-in or via email. “I developed an online version. Now people can hop online, purchase them online and complete them online. We’re the first college at SDSU to develop our own platform online,” Forbes-Hurd said.
In 2021, there were 1,172 courses completed, mostly by South Dakotans as well as a chunk of North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa residents. “We also had former graduates in other parts of America who knew they are going to get quality programs here,” said Forbes-Hurd, noting that SDSU has the only continuing education accredited program in North and South Dakota.
Now that the college has continuing education reaccreditation and a website portal, it plans to promote its continuing education program at a national audience, she said.
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