Pharmacy Schools

Medicine is an ever-evolving discipline with many factors to consider. One of the most exciting fields in health care is pharmacology, the study of drugs, their use, and their formulation. There are careers available in research and practice. In order to take advantage of this employment market, candidates must first attend pharmacy school to educate themselves in this knowledge-intensive field.

It is possible to get an associate's degree in pharmacy, which would enable you to work in a pharmacy, helping pharmacists and patients with their medicines. Most schools offer either a PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) or PhD program in pharmacy. Since the field is so knowledge-centric, both degrees take an average of six years to complete. Candidates must have an educational background rich in the sciences. The PharmD curriculum is heavy with high-level chemistry classes, not to mention molecular and organic biology. There are also a slate of courses not unlike medical school?anatomy, physiology, and microbiology. Then courses begin to narrow their scope. Students start taking a variety of pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, and toxicology classes in which they study the effects, positive and negative, of drugs on human and mammalian biology.

Candidates with an associate's degree from a pharmacy school work as pharmacist technicians at hospitals or private pharmacies. Pharmacists with advanced degrees from pharmacy schools face a wide open job market. They can work as pharmacists in hospitals dealing directly with patients. They can also work as researchers formulating new drugs or testing existing ones. They can also work in regulatory bodies ensuring the safety of the drugs coming from pharmaceutical companies.

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