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No Ordinary Grad: New Jersey Pharmacist Earns High Honors from UF
10/10/2008
Linda Homewood
Alphabetically, Edith Tortora Micale, Pharm.D., ranked midway in the procession of 91 graduates who lined up for the UF College of Pharmacy August commencement. But at 69, Micale was by no means the average pharmacy student.
She traveled far from her home in North Bergen, N.J., for the honor of joining her classmates in taking the Pharmacist’s Oath, singing the UF Alma mater and accepting the college’s top academic and leadership award. This was her first visit to the UF campus.
Micale began the UF pharmacy program in 2005, but her class group met in New York City. Other classmates hailed from Utah, New Mexico and Texas and even internationally, from Jamaica to Germany.
The need for a doctor of pharmacy education program for working professionals was realized in the early-’90s when U.S. colleges and universities began phasing out baccalaureate degrees in pharmacy, said Sven Normann, Pharm.D., associate dean for distance, continuing and executive education for UF’s College of Pharmacy.
“The Doctor of Pharmacy was established as the first professional degree, leaving many working pharmacists in a difficult situation,” Normann said. “Despite many years of work experience, they lacked the advanced degree and some of the clinical skills of the new pharmacy graduates entering the workforce.”
A hospital pharmacist in New Jersey, Micale realized she needed to update her clinical skills and began looking at area pharmacy schools. That’s when she discovered UF’s Working Professional Doctor of Pharmacy distance learning program for pharmacists like herself.
“I am very familiar with the accreditation process for colleges of pharmacy, and the University of Florida's WPPD program meets all the expectations of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education,” Micale said.
UF teaches pharmaceutical care through the management of disease states, a method used in educating contemporary pharmacists, Micale said, adding that the program helped her attain a higher level of clinical skills.
“This was not the way I learned when I was in pharmacy school, but it is the most effective method in improving patient outcomes,” she said.
Edith was among 10 students out of 77 WPPD graduates, who competed for the highest honors awarded at graduation. Joseph Micale, M.D., her husband and biggest supporter, accompanied his wife to commencement and a special reception held by Dean William Riffee, Ph.D. The couple was surprised to learn that Edith was to receive the engraved Outstanding Graduate Award plaque.
An experienced hospital pharmacist, who served on the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy for 15 years — including two years as president — Micale earned a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy in 1960 from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. Licensed in New York and New Jersey, her long-standing pharmacy career has taken her to hospital pharmacies in both states, where she honed her expertise in quality assurance and performance improvement while administering to patient care.
In addition to dispensing prescriptions, pharmacists teach patients how their medications work and the importance of sticking to medication schedules, which helps patients get the most out of their treatment.
“This is the pharmacist's best role, and the area of practice I enjoy the most,” Micale said. “and this is why I returned for my Pharm.D. degree — so I can better serve my patients.”
Like any new doctor of pharmacy, you don’t hear Micale mention words like, “retirement” or “part-time.” She serves on the Canterbury Board of Trustees for Christ Hospital in Jersey City, N. J., and continues to work at the Jersey City Medical Center, and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, N.J.
