If you have a sincere interest in people and health, you may consider pharmacy as a career. Modern pharmacy offers outstanding opportunities for professional service and personal achievement.
Pharmacy's ultimate goal is to render pharmaceutical care. This encompasses the full range of pharmacists' skills, knowledge and abilities in providing medication services to patients. Pharmacy is concerned with the preparation, distribution and use of drugs prescribed by doctors, dentists and other practitioners. An expanding need for pharmacists is shown by examining some of society's significant social and health issues. These include increases in average life span, the percentage of elderly in the population and in increased incidence of chronic diseases.
Pharmacists require a combination of skills and attributes, depending on the setting in which they work. They need to be able to compound and dispense a wide variety of prescriptions accurately. Pharmacists who deal with the public need good interpersonal skills as well. Those who their own businesses should possess a good entrepreneurial sense.
A license to practice pharmacy is required in all 50 states. To get a license, one needs a degree from an accredited college of pharmacy, and then they must pass a state exam and serve an internship under a licensed pharmacist. Seventy-five US colleges and schools of pharmacy offer accredited professional degree programs, most requiring one or two years of college-level pre-pharmacy education. A doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) normally requires six years. Entry requirements usually include mathematics, chemistry, biology and physics, as well as courses in the social sciences.
Millikin offers coursework which meets the pre-requisite for admission to doctor of pharmacy programs. In addition, Millikin offers a dual degree program with Midwestern University. This program allows a student to earn both a bachelor’s degree (chemistry major) and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in six (6) years. Prospective students must apply for the dual degree program at the same time that they apply for admission to Millikin. Acceptance into the program is based on submitted documents and evaluation by Millikin and Midwestern. Once admitted to the program, students must maintain a 3.2 GPA in each of the four semesters that they are enrolled at Millikin.
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