Departments & Centers
Dr. Ashleigh Barrickman is presented with the 2022 David H. Wilks Memorial Award for Excellence in Simulation.
Pharmacy Skills Development Center

Dr. Barrickman, clinical associate professor, is the Director of the Pharmacy Skills Development Center. In this role, she works with faculty to plan, develop, schedule and assess simulations at STEPS.

Barrickman Honored

About the Center

The Pharmacy Skills Development Center is located on the 3rd floor North of the Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center of West Virginia University. The state-of-the-art facility opened in January 2020 and is 7,650 sq. ft. of fully renovated space. The center includes a compounding lab, technology space and group rooms among other spaces.  It complements the adjacent state of art simulation center shared by all WVU Health Sciences schools.

Prescription Processing / Telepharmacy Room

Our students are introduced to prescription verification and processing skills in the spring semester of their professional year. Students advance their skills with activities each semester through the rest of their didactic curriculum. These activities are paired with objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs) and patient counseling simulations, which 12 students complete at a time. So this room was purposely designed with desks for 12 students to complete their prescription verification activities.

  • A view of the prescription processing / telepharmacy room which contains six divider separated workstaions along a wall with a window on the end.
  • A room with a window and computers against a yellow wall.

Lab Debrief Room

The Lab Debrief room is used for multiple lab activities and elective courses. The design of the room allows students to work in small groups on assignments including patient cases, educational games and practice skills such as blood pressure, diabetic foot exams and vaccinations. Faculty can use the interactive white board to display information on the monitors throughout the room or students can connect their laptops to the small monitors for group work. The room is mostly used for lab sessions in the second and third years of the curriculum, as well as for pharmacy electives.

  • Two female students practice taking blood pressure.
  • Students sit a tables in a long classroom with computers ad windows.
  • An empty classroom with tables, computers and pictures on the wall.
  • A female professor teaches to female students how to take a patient's blood pressure.
  • Three students sitting at a table with their laptop computers.
  • Empty classroom with table, chairs and monitors on the wall.
  • A wall with a monitor on it.

Compounding Lab

The Compounding Lab is mostly used in the first year of the curriculum. In the fall semester, students learn how to make compounded pharmacy products such as topical gels, creams, suppositories and lip balms. We also use this room to teach point of care testing including nasopharyngeal swabs, oral swabs, blood glucose and cholesterol testing. We also have mock IV hoods in the lab to teach students sterile technique for preparing IV products.

  • The Compounding Lab shows lab style tables where students are seated and participating in glucose training.
  • A female professor watches as two male students finish their glucose training.
  • Empty classroom with long tables and chairs.
  • Empty classroom with long tables, chairs and a tv on the wall.

Patient Counseling Room

This is one of the breakout/small group rooms that can be used when students are working together in small groups for lab activities, including patient counseling practice before graded assessments in the STEPS (simulation) center. When this room is not being used for class, students can use it to study.

A more private room with a single desk. You can also see a monitor mounted on the wall behind the desk and a white board on the adjacent wall.

Distance Education Room

This is another breakout room/small group room, which includes technology for our distance faculty on the Charleston campus to connect to small groups of students to teach lab activities.

Two students show seated at a table in the middle of a smaller room with a monitor and white board present.

Student Lounge

The Student Lounge is a place for students to relax between classes, eat or study.

  • A number of students are seen relaxing in the lounge room. There are tables in the center and a couch at the rear along with other amenities.
  • An alternate view of the student lounge showing a series of table gatherings and a concession area counter in the back.
  • Four students sitting in a circle reading.
  • Three male students wearing white coats talk in the student lounge.

Point-of-Care Testing Room

The Point of Care Testing Room is one of the breakout/small group rooms that can be used when students are working in small groups on lab activities, including immunization practice and point-of-care testing practice. When this room is not being used for class, students can use it to study.

  • A female professor teaches to female students how to immunize a patient.
  • A table in a yellow room with a tv screen on the wall and immunization supplies on the table.
  • Test third photo