Continuing Education Requirements

Pharmacy is a rapidly changing field as the advancements in drugs is coming at an unprecedented rate. As such, many states and associations are requiring pharmacists to take pharmacy continuing education courses before they have their licenses renewed. Although these courses are typically not particularly hard (they’re more intended to give you a decent understanding of newer pharmaceutical ideas and practices), it can sometimes be difficult to find quality courses that actually provide you with a solid education. However, there are a couple of really easy ways to identify good and bad courses.

Firstly, look for accreditations from a governing body that your state accepts. One common association that you should look for is ACPE (Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education). This association sets high quality standards that all courses and programs who receive this accreditation must follow. Perhaps as a testament to the standards set by the ACPE itself, the organization has been around since 1932 to accredit pre-service education, but it was actually in 1975 that it extended its scope into pharmacy continuing education. Dishonest sites and companies that try to sell you useless CEUs (continuing education units) will certainly not have this accreditation, so it’s definitely in your best interest to investigate carefully.

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Secondly, look for solid course descriptions and a long history of the company being in business. For example, never sign up for a course that offers vague expectations and outcomes like “building leadership skills”. Always look for detailed documentation of what the course is about – i.e. look for specific things that you’ll learn at the end of the course. Most useless online pharmacy continuing education companies don’t last particularly long either, so a trusted brand name and a long history of being in business certainly helps. An organization that passes this test, for example, would be USC (University of Southern California) as they have a pharmaceutical continuing education department.

Enrolling in good continuing education activities is not only good for the re-licensing requirements, but also for your resume. As such, it’s important that you only enroll in courses that are accredited by a board that your state accepts and courses that have good, descriptive course information sections. Never enroll in a course that’s vague or seems to come from a sketchy company.