KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — South College is changing the way pharmacy students pursue an education. This week, students who have been learning remotely are in a laboratory learning hands-on how to compound a variety of medications, from drinkable solutions, to eye drops, and even lollipops.
On Wednesday, South College’s hybrid School of Pharmacy students were in the lab taking part in a two week immersion, where they learn to compound medications. Last week, they learned about sterile compounding, which includes dosing medications in IV bags, and this week, they are spending this week compounding medications like ones you could pick up from your pharmacy.
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Before moving onto their next year of pharmacy school, students will be required to know how to make 19 different styles of compounded dosage forms. Some of those dosage forms include melts, gummy lozenges, suppositories, topical creams, ointments, suspensions, capsules, gels, eye drops and inhalants, just to name a few. These different forms of medication delivery allow pharmacists to help patients receive their medication in the way that works best for their individual needs.
As the demand grows for GLP-1 medications and bioidentical hormone therapy, the demand for the skills South College’s students are learning is expected to continue rapidly grow.
“Whether that be the frenzy of GLP-1 interest that’s out there and pharmacies stepping in to fill in manufacturing gaps. But more important than that, I think it’s that therapy gaps we close in and that customization of a prescription for a patient. And so that has become wildly popular as well when we look at the black box removal for bioidentical hormones for females,” said School of Pharmacy Dean Tim Smith. “That has created a tremendous uptick in interest in the community setting just to investigate what’s that about and more importantly, ‘how do I make sure I’m getting a high-quality preparation and what are those key components to that?’”…