AboutMary E Scott, RPh, CGP Expertise I am a certified geriatric pharmacist with over 23 years experience as a long-term care consultant to nursing homes. I also do community-based consulting on an individual basis. My facility-based monthly newsletter on pharmacy topics is read by nurses in over 200 long-term care facilities in 5 states.
Experience I received a BS in Pharmacy in 1980 with post-graduate work in public health. I have had a Consultant Pharmacist license since 1984.
Organizations American Society of Consultant Pharmacists .I received certification in geriatric pharmacy in 1998.
Question Hi, I'm a junior in high school and seriously considering a career as a phamacist. I have some questions to help me plan for college and follow the right coursework.
1. Is history or anything history-related required to get the Doctor of Pharmacy degree?
2. Do pharmacists need chemistry for every single activity?
3. What subjects are included in the PCAT, besides chemistry, biology, and such? Is it really difficult?
4. Is work very busy and a big rush?
5. Do most pharmacists work weekends?
6. Why do most people do 3 years of pre-pharmacy instead of 2?
7. Is there a need to memorize every kind of medicine and its scientific name in order to do well with a job?
Answer Hi,Britsie!
I will try to answer most of your questions. However, I have been out of school for awhile,so you may have to ask someone else about coursework.
1)History courses are not required as far as I know
2)Chemistry makes up the majority of pharmacy courses. Each course builds on the other. For example, inorganic chemistry is taken first,then organic chemistry,then biochemistry,then medicinal chemistry,etc
3)The Pcat was not required when I was in pharmacy school.
4)It depends on where you work. In a retail setting,whether it's a chain pharmacy or an independent pharmacy,the busyness of it has to do with the #of prescriptions you do in a day, the # of techs you have to help you,whether you have to compound prescriptions,etc.
Whether it's retail or hospital, sometimes it's slow,then gets very busy.
5) Most pharmacies are open on weekends. Saturday is a given,but some places aren't open on Sunday or have short hours.
6)I don't know about that. It may depend on the college of pharmacy. You could check on different schools.
7) In pharmacy school you learn drugs by drug classes. For example,if you are learning about high blood pressure meds, you would first learn about beta-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, diuretics, ACE-inhibitors,etc. Then you would learn the different drugs in each class,and how they are different from each other (side-effects, absorption, interactions,etc). Hope this helps, and feel free to email again if my answers have prompted more questions! Mary
