PY1 Review - Pharmaceutical Care Lab

The Pharmaceutical Care Lab (PCL) course was the only interactive class of our first year.  Once a week, we would spend half the day in the lab working on a variety of topics.  Instead of sitting in a stale classroom, we worked in small groups through assignments, discussions, check-offs, and compounding.  I enjoyed the variety of the courses.

The most stressful part of PCL was the Top 200 Drug List.  Each week we had a new list of 8-10 drugs to memorize the Generic Name, Brand Name, Therapeutic Class, and Common Indication.  The weekly quiz wasn't too bad, but you did have to spell everything exactly.  The Staying on Track Quiz brought about 4 weeks of drugs together and the final exam from each semester put 100 drugs into a single test.  I quickly found that Quizlet offered the best method to study the drug names with rapid repetition that required correct spelling.  You could study on your computer and on your phone as you rode the bus to class.  For anyone that has to memorize anything, I suggest Quizlet.  Below I include the Top 200 Drugs we had to learn this year.  During PY2, we will use the same drugs but add much more detail including doses, side effects, and precautions.


During each semester, we produced 4 compounded prescriptions.  Sometimes a patient requires medication that is not commercially available or in a different form.  Pharmacists are licensed to compound products.  Some students loved compounding but others hated it.  To me, it was just like any chemistry class.  I liked the part.  We made Benadryl solutions, Ketoprofen creams, nasal sprays, and much more.  The most interesting to me was a menthol troche to soothe irritated throats.  In addition to preparing the compounded drugs, we had to counsel the patient on how to use the product.  I suspect more people we worried about counseling that preparation.  For each product, you explained the way to take the medication, what to watch out for, and some other parts.  In the profession, pharmacists can do from zero to all compounding.  In the special formulations area of the hospital, compounding happens all the time.  Some pharmacies do nothing but compound products for local hospitals and patients (but some got in trouble for doing too much the wrong way - there will be a post about that later).  Then again, some pharmacists will never compound a products.  But all pharmacists have to counsel patients on medications.

We began learning about Medication Therapy Management by looking a patient's med lists and searching for duplications and interactions.  We took vital signs, including blood pressure.  We interviewed a patient.  We practiced and passed aseptic technique.  The PCL covers a lot of ground.  It also lets PY3s work as Teaching Assistants for the PY1s.  I am looking forward to what we will do next year.