education: April 2008 Archives

Until 2004, there were two degree programs that were eligible for accreditation by the American Council of Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE): the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Pharmacy and the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD). Both of these degrees meet the requirements of State boards of pharmacy allowing graduates to be examined for licensure. The first of these, the BS degree, is phased out throughout the U.S. and the ACPE will only accredit PharmD programs after 2003. The Doctor of Pharmacy program requires at least eight semesters of professional-level course work, usually over a four-year period, including at least two semesters of supervised practice experience. Eligibility for entry into the Doctor of Pharmacy program requires successful completion of a series of college-level prepharmacy requirements that generally take at least two years to complete. Therefore, the Doctor of Pharmacy is frequently described as a six-year program although many candidates entering PharmD programs already hold Bachelors degrees with majors such as biology and chemistry. It is also possible to pursue the Doctor of Pharmacy degree after completing a Bachelors degree in pharmacy. This option is often called a post-BS PharmD degree or non traditional PharmD. The pharmacy curriculum includes required and elective coursework in these areas:

1. Normal and pathologic human biology including the study of human anatomy and physiology, pathologic disease processes, and the study of immunology and other defense mechanisms against disease.
2. Chemistry including biochemistry particularly as it applies to the structure and function of medications.
3. Pharmacology which is the study of the biological actions of medications with emphasis on the mechanism of drug action.
4. Pharmaceutics which includes the study of the various dosage forms for medications, the processes of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, the preparation of medications and the requirements for handling, storing, preparing and dispensing prescription medications in the United States.
5. Social and administrative courses that address health care systems in the United States, communications, biomedical ethics, legal issues surrounding the practice of pharmacy and the economics of medication use.
6. The therapeutics of medication use including medication selection, dosing, monitoring and determining whether a desired therapeutic outcome has been achieved for both prescription and non-prescription (overthe-counter) medications.
7. Experiential courses that engage the student in actual pharmacy practice experiences under the guidance of a preceptor. The experiential component is distributed throughout the curriculum with a full-time concentration during the last semesters. The clerkship lasts at least two semesters and consists of a series of rotations of four or more weeks in length in various practice settings including community and institutional sites. This portion of the curriculum is particularly labor-intensive requiring skilled practitioners and a high faculty-student ratio