(286) Current Status of Pharmaceutics Education in US Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy

Objective : To determine the extent of pharmaceutics education in US Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs.

Methods: Curricular information on pharmaceutics and pharmaceutics laboratory components were collected from the websites of US PharmD programs (N=144). Collected data were analyzed, compared, and new trends and developments were identified.

Results: Of 144 PharmD programs analyzed, 100% posted information about their curriculum online and had dedicated pharmaceutics courses offered mostly as an independent course, or combined with other subjects in the PharmD program. Majority of the programs offered Pharmaceutics in the first professional year (N=126, 87.5%). Of the programs that provided independent pharmaceutics courses, number of credit hours dedicated to pharmaceutics varied from 4 to 10 (Median=6, Mode=6, Mean=6.6), and Seventy-four (~58%) programs offered 6-8 credits of Pharmaceutics including laboratory components. Furthermore, there are currently 45 schools, including private and public, that offer accelerated (N=27) or online (N=18) PharmD programs.

Conclusions: Almost all US colleges and schools of Pharmacy have dedicated pharmaceutics courses in their curriculum, generally covered in the first professional year. However there is discrepancy about the credit hours dedicated to pharmaceutics. Many PharmD programs have reduced the number of credit hours dedicated to pharmaceutics either to provide shorter programs or to add more clinical components. Additionally, some programs do not have sterile compounding or physical pharmacy laboratories at all, and few programs provide compounding laboratories through skills labs. Therefore, standardization of pharmaceutics courses and laboratory components across US pharmacy schools are recommended.