Motor skills required for Pharmacy?

[biogirl215]

Okay, let me ask this, and I promise I'll at least try to shut up for a while and stop bothering all you nice people. In fact, if you want to tell me to shut up now, go ahead. I know I'm probably being as annoying as all get out, but I just want to try and get a sense of whether or not I am actually eligible to do Pharmacy before working for 2-3 more years to get into school. If I can, great, I'll work my hardest to bring up my GPA and get a great PCAT, get good experience, and whatever else I can do to make myself the most competitive applicant I can (I know that's no admission guarantee, but I'll give it my all). If not, I want to know that now, so that I don't do all that only to find out that I can't physically do the work required of PharmD's.

I've been reading through technical requirements and standards for various schools, and most of them are pretty vague, saying something along the lines of "have the fine and gross motor skills and equllibrum required to compound and deliver medications and perform basic emergency techniques." What exactly does this entail? Giving IV's? Administering meds via injections? CPR? Basic wound suriture (for the emergency part)? What does compounding entail in the area of motor skills? Anything beyond basic chemical lab skills (chopping pills, etc.--or has that become the duty of techs)?

I do have an appointment to discuss this with the pharmacy school at my U and am planning to shadow a clinical pharmacist this summer, but any info would be much appreciated.

Oncer again, my apologies for being a pest and best of luck to all of you on your careers!

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[acetyl]

Preparing medications and being a pharmacist? It requires the same motor skills as a lot of other health careers. Watch someone and see if you can do what they do. Stay away from Ativan, Risperdal, and the like and you should be fine. 😀

 

[JerryPharmD]

Hand-eye coordination is needed for aseptic technique. You need to be able to draw solutions in syringes in a hood without blocking critical sites from first air. Typing skills are necessary. Some compounding involves trituration (grinding substances into smaller particles), and your hands can get tired after a while. Making ointments can cause hand fatigue. Then there's always tablet/capsule counting.

Pharmacists don't usually suture, push drugs or start IVs. You may have to do CPR or work an ambu bag. If you're ok in chem lab, you should be ok in pharmacy school.

 

[sdn1977]

I think you asked this question on the Topics in Healthcare - right?

The beauty of pharmacy is that it can be very physical or not, depending on what you do - mixing IV's & chemos (which is hot & requires fine manipulative skills) to lots of movement from one place to another - mostly we'd assume walking. But, as I mentioned in that forum, I do have one friend who has MS & is in a wheelchair now about half the time. The only issue is hospital pharmacy corridors are very narrow.....not really wheelchair friendly.

Outpt can be difficult because of the physical restrictions put on the layout of the pharmacy itself. Laws require height restrictions so people can't reach over. However, again....I know of a pharmacist in my area who is deaf & you'd think with communication being so important...that would be an issue (think taking a verbal rx over the phone...) - but she's a retail pharmacist.

However - there are lots of avenues which don't involve dispensing at all. There are pharmacists in poison control, drug information, insurance prior authorization areas, management & drug infomatics - many, many places which don't require physical or fine motor mobility. They just require you to be a critical thinker, which I don't think is your issue at all.

Now - don't apologize & consider yourself a pest. You must get over that if you want to convince an admissions committee you really do have something to offer the profession.

Go investigate more & good luck - you've got lots of opportunities & don't let a narrow minded counselor take away your ambition!🙂

 

[biogirl215]

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to talk to some pharrmacy school coordinators next week, get a feel for what is required, and see if they are things I can reasonably do and/or work around. Honestly, I wouldn't want to go into pharmacy if I don't think I could be a safe, competent, and valuable pharmacist, but if I can, well, then I'm going work my brains out to do it!

 

[biogirl215]

I met with the pharmd technical standards reps this week. They said they would have serious reservations about admiting someone with a disability such as mine, said CPR was a non-negotionable requirement, and said I probably won't be able to fulfill the technical requirements of pharmd programs, so, yeah, not what I wanted to hear, but I can't say I wasn't expecting it... They did say in August (after I do some clinical shadowing) I can be tested on the what would be required of me in pharmacy school, but that if I can't pass that, it's pretty unlikely I could ever be admitted or licensed. On the plus side, both reps. were very nice, and I understand that their motives aren't malicious at all. They did say I seemed mature and intelligent and wished me well, which was nice

. I'm disappointed, yes, but I guess that's life, and I can't change it. I'm still holding out a tiny sliver of hope that I might pass this test, but honestly, it seems pretty unlikely, especially wrt the CPR requirement. I guess I need to start looking for a plan B now in case I fail while also readying myself for what might be required of me...

 

[npage148]

Check with different schools about what they require. UB does not have a CPR requirement and some others may be more lenient to what they will waive.

 

[tussionex]

i can't see ANY school discriminating like that against someone with a disability....the CPR requirement is nice, but kinda bogus...

i mean, really, of all the people each school graduates, the majority of students will go into retail where almost every store has an AED. for those of us that work in a hospital and actually get to go to the floor, well, when someone codes, there are at least 85 extra people in the room who are not needed and most of them can do compressions. so, no, i really don't think an ABSOLUTE, non-negotiable CPR requirement makes much sense.

try another school and good luck!
😎

 

[The Fargoan]

Don't give up your dream because of one requirement at one school! I think it seems short-sighted to require CPR and deny all prospective students unable to perform it. At my retail pharmacy the pharmacist spends the majority of his time talking on the phone and typing scripts into the computer; I'm sure I've never seen him perform CPR or any other life-saving procedures. I wish you luck! 🙂

 

[bananaface]

I wonder how many schools lack a CPR requirement. I bet a few.

 

[biogirl215]

I'm not giving up yet--I'm going to do some pharmacists shadowing this summer and get a sense for what motor skills are generally required of pharmacists, ask my shadowees their opinions, and so forth and go from there. If it looks like I can reasonably meet the requirements of the job, I'll do some massive research and see which schools either lack a CPR requirement or are more leinient with it, and prepare to apply to those. If it's obvious I can't meet the requirements, then, well, I can't do it, plain and simple, and I'll think of something else---but I'm not giving up until I KNOW (or I suppose I could always shadow and hate it regardless, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen, either!).

Thank you for your comments and take care!
~biogirl

 

[All4MyDaughter]

There are provisions in place for disabled individuals to learn CPR and become certified. You basically learn how to direct others in providing rescue breathing and chest compressions. I did the research on this a few years ago when I had an employee who was refusing CPR certification (she just didn't want to). Call the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association.

 

[biogirl215]

Really? Cool! Thanks for telling me; I'll look into that. If all goes according to plan, I should start shadowing next week. Wish me luck!

 

[Farmercyst]

Really? Cool! Thanks for telling me; I'll look into that. If all goes according to plan, I should start shadowing next week. Wish me luck!