I was wondering is pharmacy school really 3 to 4 years of intensive chemistry. I mean I am way better in organic than I was in gen chem, maybe because its more reading and understanding in orgo instead of just equation after equation, math, math, math. But is it really just several years of advanced chem or what does it consist of?
You should go online and look at the curriculum for the school you want to attend. Courses are outlined very meticulously in that section (though the class names might be different from school to school ie biochem might be called "clinical biochem" or "biochem of medicinals" or "cellular sciences" in different school...)
In short regarding what you'll be learning:
-No it's not entirely about chemistry for the whole 3-4 years. If you go to a 4 years program, the first 3 years are for classes when you learn mostly theoretical aspects of pharmacy and the last year is devoted to rotation when you are put out in the field.
-A strong organic chemsitry foundation will benefit you a lot as usually in second year (or even first year at some schools), you have to take Medicinal Chemistry. This med chem is not like undergrad medchem, it focuses on funtional group analysis and requires a tremendously thorough understanding of o-chem to figure out metabolism, drug interxn, IUPAC nomenclatures of drugs (the names tell you about the structure) etc. Ex: when you look at the structure of Retin-A (the acne drug), you should be able to see that it has Conjugation (you learn about this in ochem) and THUS is sensitive to light (you learn about pi-system in ochem)--> so you should counsel the patient to wear sunscreen when taking this drug.
-A strong foundation in calculation is also crucial. You will have to learn pharmaceutical calculations: moles, mEq, mOsm, dosing, IV drips,... and some of them use math in gen chem. Pharmacokinetics (study of how fast/slow and rate/thermodynamics of drug metabolism) uses a lot of equations/calculation also.
-Gen chem is important as you will learn pharmaceutics (study of dosage form of drugs) and will need to know about solubility (as in solution drugs), dissolution/diffusion (as in sustained release drugs), or colligative propers (melting points, freezing points....)
-Besides the above main themes, you will also need to know Cell biology, Physiology, Biochemistry... Also law and a bit of communication (when you counsel people, for example, with different cultural context than yours or when you communicate with doctors that look down on you)
And then finally when you come to 3rd year, you will put all of these together in therapeutics when you look at the big picture of therapy and critically solve problems.
It's an arduous journey but it'll be worth it and you don't have to know all of these in 1 week. You will work on them gradually, each topics built on the previously ones. Just buckle up and enjoy the ride
😀 !
