Original post by thegodofgodAs pharmacists, we are the experts on medicines within the healthcare team - our job is to advise prescribers such as GPs, hospital consultants and dentists on the optimal treatment for the patient, taking many factors into consideration, such as the age of the patient, whether there is any kidney / liver damage present, what other medications the patient is on, whether they have any allergies (drug or food) etc. So, you will have to know lots about drugs and medicines as a whole, but a lot of it will come from experience you gain as either a summer placement student (e.g. working as a dispenser in a community pharmacy), or when you're working as a pre-registration pharmacist or a registered pharmacist. Learning about drugs is very logical, and if you have a logical mind, you will do very well.
At Brighton our course is structure in a case-based manner - you have about 10 or so cases per year, and then you learn all the relevant content to that case within those 2 or 3 weeks. For example, we had a case called 'ischaemic heart disease' for about 2 weeks just before Easter this year, and that's where we were given lectures on anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system, physiology of cholesterol absorptino and metabolism, pharmacology of drugs to treat ischaemic heart disease, e.g. statins and nitrates, formulation of nitrates, pharmacy practice regarding counselling patients on nitrates, and learning about specific clinical trials that were used to determine the efficacy of various medicines. This case-based approach is considered to be a lot more effective for pharmacy students, as it helps keep everything that is taught within a case relevant, which makes it easier for the students to grasp conceptually, and also, how the basic science of it all fits within a clinical scenario.