And so you now enter the hardest of the four years of Pharmacy School and that's no hyperbole! This year actually separates the pharmacists from the lab technicians! If you thought you were free of PRPs ("Problèmes reliés à la pharmacothérapie") with that paultry class on Antibiotics in 2nd year, think again! By the end of this year you'll be choking on PRPs and vomiting out pathetic buzz words like "Elements du suivi" and "Solutions possibles". In theory, this aspect of pharmaceutical care is pretty good, but in order to apply it in your practice, you'd have to see 3 patients a day! Not too condusive to turning a profit in this highly competitive field. YOU WILL NOT HAVE TIME! It's that simple boys and girls. So the "ideal" situations you study in Démarches Pharmaceutiques and Communication do not happen in the real world and never, EVER go as smoothly. Does this mean that all pharmacists are data inputers or glorified depanneur owners? Well no, you DO get to tell off doctors and you can't sell smokes... But seriously, the trick is to apply pharmaceutical care with all your cases but you don't have to go to the painstaking details you see in class. Your first Care Plan will probably consist of 40 pages, the last one in 4th year, less than 1... The school actually teaches (AND WANTS) you to be BRIEF! Don't go into annoying details that even you know border on brown nosing. So while you write up your Care Plans always, and I can't reiterate this more, be BRIEF.
For 2 years you've been wondering what these fancy shmancy drugs you've been seeing in your Pharmacology classes are used for. And you're probably wondering how to memorize what each one treats, it's usual dose, side effects, interactions... Funny thing is, it happens so gradually that you won't even realize all the stuff you know by the end of the year. The pharmacotherapy classes are mostly responsible for this. The amount of time you will put into studying for these 2 classes is mind-boggling. They are the 2 most important classes by far. You learn about the diseases themselves and how to treat them and what to tell your patients once you dispense and how to follow-up afterwards. Case studies galore and some pretty tough exams assure that you've assimilated everything. Two books will help you along on your journey, the Bibles of Pharmacy School, the Dipiro and the Koda-Kimble, both are pharmacotherapy books but they display the info very differently. The Dipiro is your regular textbook with chapters and the like, pretty boring but quite complete. But the Koda-Kimble presents everything through case studies, which is a lot more interesting to read but also annoying to read... Both cost an arm and a leg and both have their pros and cons. My advice, pick one randomly and buy it.
Pharmacognosie, the study of medicinal plants, was without a doubt the most useless class we had to endure... Luckily for YOU, it's been revamped and/or eliminated (not quite sure which) and you probably won't have to suffer through it like we did.
Not much to say here, at this point you know enough to actually talk to patients and even doctors without sounding dumb. You'll be able to find medication errors and make suggestions. You should practice counseling techniques and try to find time to teach a new patient about his or her asthma pumps, it's imperative that you become very comfortable in this aspect of the practice. So yes, you will learn stuff in the third year and by applying yourself, you can consider your schooling (well the theoretical aspect anyway) finished once the 4th year starts...