Importance of labs in pharmacy curriculum

[Pharm47]

I'm wondering how relevant/important labs are as part of curriculum. I'm trying to decide between a 3-year and 4-year program in my state, and noticed that the condensed program had only 1 lab as part of the curriculum (pharmaceutics block). In contrast, the traditional program had weekly labs throughout the first and second year (pharmaceutics and pharmacy practice courses).

Will this negatively impact the education received by students at the 3-year school? For someone pursuing a residency after graduation, will this (or any other) differences negatively affect the chance of securing a PGY1 residency?

Thanks for any advice/insight!

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[TheChemist]

I'm in a three year program and almost all of our classes have labs. In my opinion most of the labs are pointless and a waste of time. Most of the labs are supplementary to the lecture, so you work in a group and work on a worksheet. There are some more useful labs like compounding and dispensing (which I'm sure are in all of the pharm school curriculums) but the ones for the general sciences are worthless. It may be different in other schools. I don't know. Hope this helps.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

I don't know about the pharmaceutics labs but I have seen a couple of the pharmacy practice labs at OSU and they look interesting. A lot of it is role playing as patient and pharmacist, I think a lot of what happens in that lab is easily supplemented by getting a job in a pharmacy especially if you could snag a job in a compounding pharmacy. Personally I can't wait for compounding lab, that should be fun!

I have been looking at residency information and it seems that grades, intern experience and LORs are what get you the gig. More lab experience in school never hurts though.

 

[GatorRxGirl]

Our labs are integrated, so we have pharmaceutics lab one day and pharmacy practice lab another day.

 

[Tessalon]

I agree. If labs centered more on learning actual job skills such as making IV's, calculating TPNs, compounding, and identifying drug interactions then they would definitely be worth it. Our school had a lot of worthless labs, unfortunately. I feel like a lot of time was wasted every week.

 

[genesis09]

We have labs and recitations. Recitations are for therapeutics, and you work in groups to solve a case.
In terms of wet labs, we have compounding lab, dispensing/counseling lab, dosage administration, and problem solving. Compounding lab is when you compound a drug. For P-2 year, you have to come up with your own recipe. Dispensing/counseling is when you simulate filling a prescription and then counsel the person. Dosage administration is where we learn how to use various devices, for instance we have done inhalers, and this week, it is insulin devices. Problem Solving is when you have given one line about a patient. AB presented to the clinic with complain of X. Then, you will interview the "patient," "doctor," and "pharmacist." You will find out what is the person's problems, and write up an action plan.