Perspectives in Pharmacy

 Welcome to the world of Drugs! 

As you know being a student in Pharmacy is a challenging task to be into. You spent a large percentage of your time learning chemistry, basic clinical and pharmaceutical sciences, and calculations of involving many formulas ranging from dosing to molar concentration to density and gas laws. In the laboratory, you enjoy doing titration, observing chemical reactions and taking notes of your data. 

Pharmacy is a 4-year course in the Philippines which you take after graduating grade 12. It is a difficult course, though superficially to some other people it looks so easy. People tend to think that you don't even need a degree to sell medications. Because to them, dispensing drugs which is a function of the pharmacist is super easy to do. At the back of our minds, we know that it is even more complex than that. Dispensing requires several steps and training that is indispensable to us. Apart from that we are responsible for ordering, maintaining stocks and keeping the operation of the drug store. If anything happens to the patient due to our negligence, we are also liable. 

Patient counselling is one of the greatest responsibility that is bestowed upon us. It should be an honor to do it as often as possible to as many patients but most of the time, we are too busy doing many other things that we have no time counselling. You will learn later on how to properly communicate with patients. We call them customers but the better term would be patients. Even though they are ambulatory in the community setting. We only think of patients who are institutionalized in facilities, but that is not true. Every person who comes to us for the relief of their suffering, or consult for drugs considering their signs and symptoms are considered patients. Mostly their complaints are diarrhea, upper respiratory infection, abdominal pain, headache, pain and the like. 

The study of Pharmacy takes not only intelligence but diligence and effort. At Year 1, you are introduced to General, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry which are difficult subjects. Then it gets even more complicated in Year 2 where you get Dosage Forms, Calculations, Biochemistry and more computations. In Year 3 you memorized a lot of concepts and drugs plus chemistry and again calculations. You grapple with Biopharmaceutics, Pharmacokinetics, Physical Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy Plant Chemistry and more! Year 4 is kind of fun because you get Clinical Pharmacy, Toxicology and Therapeutics where your knowledge in Pharmacology is blended with the clinical side. Case scenarios involving patient and patient care gets even more fun. It is an understatement to say that reviewing sometimes even late at night is a necessity when you are overloaded with a lot of books to read. 

Always remember that the difficulty you encounter now is just temporary and will soon be rewarded. It will be worth it when you graduate since you can also apply your skills and knowledge to immediate family members. Some of them will ask for your services including dosing calculations, over the counter preparations that is best for them, asking for side effects and many more! You just need the right balance of diligence while you enjoy your social life and private life. You can study smartly and pass and become one of us- a full-fledged pharmacist. 

Good luck!