Provides an overview of the pharmacy profession including licensure, areas of practice, communications skills, and career options. Examines general pharmacy school information including the Pharm D curriculum, considerations in selecting a College of Pharmacy, and admission requirements. Offers a mock PCAT exam to determine student strengths and weaknesses and then discusses select test preparation options. Recommended co-requisites: CHEM-142, ENG-132, PHYS-131, and SPC-131.
Goals, Topics, and Objectives
- Introduction to and history of the pharmacy profession
- Pharmacy career options
- Education, Licensure and eligibility requirements
- College of Pharmacy Admission requirements
- Pharmacy communication skills and pharmacy technology
- Review of PCAT exam content areas
- Mock PCAT exam 1
- Assessment of individual strengths and weaknesses
- Remediation options: Learning lab, additional classes, and Plato software, study skills
- Mock PCAT exam 2
- Interpersonal communication skills
- Differentiate the expectations between hospital, outpatient, home infusion, and research areas of the pharmacy profession.
- Describe the state and national eligibility requirements for licensure within the profession.
- Describe the elements needed to consider in selecting a pharmacy school.
- Identify the pharmacy curriculum elements for the regional pharmacy schools.
- Describe the 5 major content areas assessed on the PCAT exam.
- Identify individual strengths and weaknesses in Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and English in relation to pharmacy school requirements.
- Design a detailed plan to remediate any detected weak areas using your mock PCAT exam results.
- Analyze your mock PCAT Exam results against the five major content areas.
- Describe the interpersonal communication skills required of pharmacists.
Assessment and Requirements
All students will be required to complete the mock exam, actively participate in the class discussions and prepare a remediation plan in order to successfully complete this course.
Instructors (or their designees) reserve the right to require students to provide picture identification for test taking, graded papers or projects or other appropriate purposes.
To be determined by program faculty.