SDN Pharmacy Wiki
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Is Pharmacy Right for me?
Role of a Pharmacist
"Pharmacists play a vital role in the health care system through the medicine and information they provide. While responsibilities vary among the different areas of pharmacy practice, the bottom line is that pharmacists help patients get well. Pharmacist responsibilities include a range of care for patients, from dispensing medications to monitoring patient health and progress to maximize their response to the medication. Pharmacists also educate consumers and patients on the use of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, and advise physicians, nurses, and other health professionals on drug decisions. Pharmacists also provide expertise about the composition of drugs, including their chemical, biological, and physical properties and their manufacture and use. They ensure drug purity and strength and make sure that drugs do not interact in a harmful way. Pharmacists are drug experts ultimately concerned about their patients' health and wellness.The principal goal of pharmaceutical care is to achieve positive outcomes from the use of medication which improves patients' quality of life with minimum risk. Pharmacists strive to
* Cure disease; * Eliminate or reduce symptoms; * Arrest or slow a disease process; * Prevent disease; Diagnose disease; and * Alter physiological processes for desirable result in the patient's health.
Pharmacists are professionals, uniquely prepared and available, committed to public service and to the achievement of this goal." (according to American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) website)
Why become a pharmacist?
10 reasons to become a pharmacist, according to AACP
1. I Want to Help People Get Well
Pharmacists play a key role in helping patients feel better and get well as quickly as possible. Pharmacists can be instrumental in improving the health of patients by choosing the best medicines and helping to avoid side effects. There are often multiple medications available on the market to treat a single disease or ailment. Pharmacists work with prescribers to determine the best drug- and non-drug therapy for a patient’s particular illness, age, gender, health, etc. Pharmacists screen patients for drug allergies and adverse drug effects.
2. I Like to Work Directly with Patients
Since pharmacies are often located within a residential community and in common shopping places like grocery stores, pharmacists are generally considered the most accessible member of the health care team. Patients can often visit their local pharmacist to seek advice about the medications they are taking without making an appointment. Pharmacists may also provide other services such as immunizations, asthma care, blood pressure monitoring services, cholesterol screening, diabetes disease management, smoking cessation consultation, bone density scans for osteoporosis screening, anticoagulation management clinics, and more.
3. I Enjoy a Wide Variety of Career Opportunities
Pharmacists can work in a myriad a professional settings. The majority of pharmacists (60%) work in an independent or retail chain community pharmacy and provide counseling to patients on the use of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Pharmacists work in numerous other health care environments as well, including hospitals, nursing homes, managed care organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, colleges and schools, and the federal government. Pharmacists play key leadership roles in all aspects of the health care system.
4. I Can Benefit from the Increased Demand For Pharmacists
There is an ongoing demand for pharmacy services throughout the U.S. in most sectors of the profession. The demand is fueled by the following factors:
* Increased demand for patient services. * Increase in number of prescriptions filled each year, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. * Increase in the number of medicines available on the market. * Increase in the elderly population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1 in 5 Americans will be tagged as elderly by 2030.
5. I Want to be an Important Member of the Health Care Team
Pharmacists work with other health care professionals to maximize health outcomes. Numerous studies have proven that the presence of a pharmacist on hospital rounds as a full member of the patient care team has been shown to prevent drug errors and reduce costs. The collaboration of health care professionals, such as physicians and pharmacists, can help to ensure that patients properly take their medications as prescribed and avoid any harmful drug interactions.
6. I Can Have Job Mobility, Stability, and Flexibility
Pharmacists are employed in every part of the country. Pharmacy licensure is generally reciprocal between U.S. states, however, additional tests or criteria may be required to transfer licensure status. Pharmacists may be able to establish non-traditional or part-time work hours, depending on the practice setting. With the shortage of pharmacists, pharmacy students often receive multiple job offers prior to graduation.
7. I am Excited to be a Part of Major Innovations in Drug Therapy
One of the many exciting developments in the pharmacy profession is the growth of a discipline, known as pharmacogenomics. Genetic variations in genes can affect a body’s response to a drug. In the future, specialists in this area hope to sequence the entire human gene in each individual. Pharmacists and other health care providers will be able to use that information to select the best medicines, treat diseases earlier than now possible, or prevent them entirely with individually-tailored drug therapies.
8. I Want to Work with State-of-the-Art Technology
Digital innovations in pharmacy include electronic prescriptions, robotics for central prescription processing, , and use of computers in practice as well as pharmaceutical research. These technological advances enhance efficiency and help to promote patient safety. Pharmacists use these same tools to help prioritize work, fill prescriptions with greater accuracy, and spend more time with patients. By law, pharmacists must oversee an automated dispensing process for quality control purposes.
9. I Can Help Defend Against Bioterrorism
Pharmacists are educated to recognize signs and symptoms of diseases that may be used in a biological attack. The accessibility of pharmacies could be one of the keys to a successful mass immunization or drug distribution program in an emergency. In an epidemic or bioterror situation, pharmacists are prepared to play a major role in preventing the spread of disease and overseeing the distribution of appropriate and safe medications.
10. I Would Like to Be a Highly Respected Member of My Community
According to a November 2003 Gallup Poll, pharmacists’ honesty and ethics were rated as "high" or "very high" by 67% of Americans, and surpassed in ranking only by nurses. Pharmacists are visible leaders in our community who are entrusted with the health of our families.
What Can I do as a Pharmacist?
Specific practice sites and specialties (in alphabetical order): Academia, Army, Clinical Pharmacy, Clinical Research, Community Pharmacy (Chain or Independent), Compounding, Critical Care, Consultant, Distribution, Drug Information, Geriatrics, Home Care, Hospice, Hospital (Overview or Staff), Industry, Infectious Disease, Informatics, Intensive Care, Long Term Care, Managed Care, Nuclear Pharmacy, Nutrition Support, Oncology, Operating Room, Pediatric Oncology, Pediatrics, Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy, Pharmacy Benefit Management, Poison Control, Primary Care, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Senior Care, Public Health Service, Public Health Services Commissioned Corps, Regulatory, Veterinary, Transplantation (Organ)
NOTE: This list does not cover all possibilities.
A Pharmacist's Pay
For a personalized report of salary in your area, please visit Salary.com. According to Salary.com, pharmacists are making $90-100 thousand per year, not including bonuses. Salaries reported on SDN forums are around $38-50 per hour. This figure does not include a benefit package, nor does it account for pharmacists working part-time.
Applying to a Pharm. D Degree program
If you are looking to become a practicing pharmacist in the United States, you must now earn a Pharm.D degree. Older graduates may practice with a B.Pharm (Bachelor's of Pharmacy), but this is not the case for any new graduates. Masters and Ph.D degrees are also available but are more research based in nature.
To which pharmacy schools should I apply?
You should apply to the pharmacy schools which you feel best fit your professional goals. There are differences in the length of programs, differences in location, differences in delivery (online vs. traditional), differences in cost, and differences in content. Some schools are more research based, while others are more geared towards experiental based training.
The Anatomy of a Pharmacy School Application
For Both PharmCas and Non-PharmCas schools
Background Information
Any appplication you fill out to apply to pharmacy school will ask for your background information. This could include, but is not limited to: your name, address, phone number, high school you attended, your high school GPA, social security number and other items. You may be required to put your parents' information on an application.
Many programs will need this information to perform a background check on you if you are admitted.
- IMPORTANT: If you have a felony conviction, you may not be able to practice in some states. Consult your state pharmacy board for details.
Coursework
For most, a two year course of study. Can range from 1 year to a four-year degree, in some instances. The vast majority of pharmacy schools require that you take:
- 1 year General Chemistry
- 1 year Organic Chemistry
- 1 year Biology AND/OR Anatomy & Physiology (a combination, or one or the other, check schools for details)
- 1 term Speech/Public Speaking
Other prerequisites (check each individual school for up-to-date details):
- 1 term to 1 year Calculus
- 1 term Molecular Cell Biology
- 1 term Microbiology
- 1 term Immunology
- 1 term to 1 year Biochemistry
- 1 term Genetics
- 1 term to 1 year Physics
- 1 term Psychology AND/OR sociology
- 1 term Statistics
- 1 term Economics
- 1 year English Literature
- Other General Education requirements (by school)
PharmCas participating schools
Coursework
You will need to first enter any and all of your college coursework, NO MATTER how long ago you took it or what grade you earned in the course. There are a few specific reasons not to report coursework, and you will need to contact PharmCas if you may be this person. You will also need to send OFFICIAL transcripts from EVERY institution you've ever attended, even if it appears on another transcript. PharmCas will then calculate your GPA upon reciept of your transcripts. Some schools have a minimum GPA which you will need to meet as calculated by Pharmcas.
As reported by bananaface in the SDN forums: "A note on the anticipated increase in entering GPA: The mean GPA of entering students is increasing in response to the growing popularity of the field of pharmacy. The advent of PharmCAS has concurrently precipitated an enormous increase in the number of applicants per seat, by encouraging many applicants to apply to more schools than they would have in years past. Any given school's top candidates are now more likely to have been accepted to several other schools, increasing the number of students which must be admitted to fill the entering class. As a result, most schools are conducting more interviews than in past years. Given the complexity of the situation, the average entering GPA cannot be expected to simply increase in response to the increasing number of applicants per seat."
Letters of Recommendation
PharmCas will allow you to send up to three letters of recommendation to them, and there are two ways to do so. You may either send your recommender an email asking them to complete a recommendation online, which is called a electronic letter of reference (eLOR) or you may print out a form and hand it to your recommender for them to mail in to PharmCas, also called a paper letter of reference (pLOR).
Privacy Statements
PharmCas expects that you read and agree to their privacy statements. They will also ask if you have ever been convicted of a felony, which may prevent you from becoming a pharmacist in some states. There is also an option to release your inofrmation to a health professions advisor at any school you have previously attended, in the hope that the advisors can improve upon assisting people in the admissions process.
Extracurriculars, Honors, and Work Experience
Pharmacy schools will expect that you have worked or shadowed in a pharmacy setting. While it is not a requirement, it is STRONGLY recommended. Pharmacy schools look for work or volunteer experience because it shows that the applicant is serious about going into the field and has an idea of what happens in a normal day at a pharmacy.
Test Scores
PCAT
Some schools will require that you take the [Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT). For information on the test, please visit Harcourt's website [1] If you are an international student, you may have to take the TOEFL or TSE exams. Please visit each particular school's website for information this subject.
The PCAT is a scaled grade examination, based on how others who have taken the test before have performed on the exam. Your score is a percentile on how well you did compared to the "norm group," or students who have taken the exam between 1999 and 2003. Your score will be mailed to you approximately four to five weeks after the test, and according to their website, they WILL IN NO CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE SCORES BY FAX OR OVER THE PHONE.
A competitive PCAT score is determined by each school by their admission committees. However, as reported on SDN forums by users who have been accepted to various pharmacy schools, an overall 70th percentile and above is competitive.
AP/IB/CLEP
Personal Statement
PharmCas will ask for a personal essay based on your own professional objectives and why you want to be a pharmacist. Here is a list of things to include and not to include, originally written by "bananaface" on the SDN pharmacy forums:
Potential components:
- Attributes that will help you succeed in pharmacy
- Areas of interest within the profession
- Discussion of prior extenuating circumstances (this can be deferred to the interview)
- Unique or special attributes that make you an asset to the field
- What motivates you to pursue pharmacy
Things to do:
- Answer the prompt completely
- Be enthusiastic
- Be memorable
- Be positive
- Exercise good communication skills
- Explain why you are an excellent candidate
- Have at least two people read your essay and give you feedback
- Make a formal statement of your goal to pursue pharmacy as a career
- Show your personality
- Write formally
Things to avoid:
- Assuming that the reader is familiar with the rest of your application
- Beginning multiple sentences with "I"
- Cliches
- Content out of the scope of the prompt
- Contractions
- Fractions
- Grammatical errors
- Modesty
- More than one topic per paragraph
- Negativity of any sort
- Obvious exaggeration
- Parentheses, except when defining an acronym that will be commonly used
- Repeating the same phrase
- Slang
- Spelling errors
- Unconventional punctuation
- Undefined acronyms
- Wishy-washiness (i.e.: saying "I believe/think/feel that I am an excellent candidate because... " when you should say " I am an excellent candidate because...")
Non-PharmCas schools
Each non-PharmCas participating school will require that you use their own application and that you get letters of recommendation on the sheets found in the application. (Very few schools do not require a letter of recommendation.)
The Interview
The Letter
Early Decision: Deferred to Regular Admission
You have applied to one school for Early Decision, but the school didn't feel that you were exceptionally suited for their school. They WILL review your application again for regular admission.
Acceptance
A note about early decision: You may only apply early decision to ONE school, and you are OBLIGATED to attend that school if you are accepted.
Great!! You've been accepted! Depending on how many applications/interviews that you did, decide on a school as quickly as possible. Some schools give deadline for when they must hear back from you, thus most offers are conditional. You will most likely have to send back a sum of money to be determined by each individual school at this time to secure your seat in the class.
If you take the acceptance, it is expected that you contact the other schools you have applied to so that you can be taken off their list of consideration.
Rejection
Waitlisted
A school may decide that it would like to make a decision on your application at a later date. You will be put on a waitlist, upon which you get a spot in the class if an acceptee decides he/she will not attend the school. If another person does not choose to give up their seat or if you are too far back on the waitlist, you may recieve an end-of-cycle denial letter, sent out at a specific date as chosen by each individual school. Some schools will tell you where you are on a waitlist, others may decline to do so.
How am I going to pay for this?
Grants
Loans
Other ways to pay for pharmacy school
I'm in! Now what do I do?
Pharmacy School Professional Objectives
Professional Competencies
Professional pharmacist competencies that must be achieved by graduates through the professional degree program curriculum are the ability to:
1. Provide patient care in cooperation with patients, prescribers, and other members of an interprofessional health care team based upon sound therapeutic principles and evidence-based data, taking into account relevant legal, ethical, social, cultural, economic, and professional issues, emerging technologies, and evolving biomedical, pharmaceutical, social/behavioral/administrative, and clinical sciences that may impact therapeutic outcomes.
2. Manage and use resources of the health care system, in cooperation with patients, prescribers, other health care providers, and administrative and supportive personnel, to promote health; to provide, assess, and coordinate safe, accurate, and time-sensitive medication distribution; and to improve therapeutic outcomes of medication use.
3. Promote health improvement, wellness, and disease prevention in cooperation with patients, communities, at-risk populations, and other members of an interprofessional team of health care providers.
These professional competencies must be used to guide the development of stated student learning outcome expectations for the curriculum. To anticipate future professional competencies, outcome statements must incorporate the development of the skills necessary to become self-directed lifelong learners.
Professional Coursework
NAPLEX and the state jurisprudence exams
NAPLEX
The last thing to do before you're licensed fully as a pharmacist is to pass the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exam (NAPLEX) and the individual state exam for the state in which you will be practicing. You must pass your NAPLEX exam with a score of 75 or better. This is not a percentage score. According to the National Boards of Pharmacy, "The score is calculated by first determining the candidate’s ability level on the NAPLEX and then comparing the candidate’s ability level to the predetermined minimum acceptable ability level established for the NAPLEX. The passing standard has been established by a panel of pharmacy experts, and the ability level that defines the passing standard is the same for all NAPLEX administrations."
State Jurisprudence Exams
Also known as the state law exams, these are tests given by each individual State Board of Pharmacy to test your knowledge of that state's pharmacy law. If you decide to move to another state, chances are that you will have to take the test again for the state you plan to work in. State exams often do not transfer from state to state.
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