A professional environment for students to turn theory into practice is what pharmacist and business owner Marty Michel provides at Key Drugs.
"We do a lot of education for students to make sure they can be the best pharmacists they can be in the future," Michel said.
Administrators from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy in Springfield, Mo., visited Key Drugs last week for a tour of Michel's innovative site.
"We're considered an advanced community care pharmacy practice site," Michel said. "That means we are a site that is a requirement for students to go through during their pharmacy training."
Michel, who is the current president of the Missouri Board of Pharmacy, said students from near and far who are in their last year of pharmacy school intern at his facility.
The first intern from Springfield's UMKC campus, Dalton Putnam of Dexter, Mo., is currently interning at Michel's facility. He said the hands-on practice has been a great educational tool.
"That's exactly what this fourth year is for; getting that actual in-person, hands-on, experience with real patients," Putnam said. "You're not practicing anymore, this is the real deal."
UMKC-Springfield Clinical Assistant Professor Heather Taylor said Michel's pharmacy offers many great services, such as immunizations and classes for patients with diabetes.
"Not all community pharmacies offer all of these clinical services," Taylor said. "So, it has been really great to send pharmacy students down here and they can get exposure to a lot of different areas of community practice."