12 Free Online Pharmacy Courses With Certificates

In this article, you will find a list of free online pharmacy courses with certificates to complement your traditional learning or prepare you for higher learning in your institution of choice. I have added details and tastes to them to make sure they meet all your expectations and give you a leg up in your studies. Pharmacy sounds like something I would sure like to study in the future, except that I don’t like the smell of drugs.

I have always had an eye for professional courses like this because they sounded cool and could also give my family something to brag about. During my final year in high school, I had Medicine, Engineering, Medical Laboratory Science, and Pharmacy at the top of my list. If you want to study Engineering, you can check out this article for the best schools with scholarship opportunities. These courses were not anything dreamy for me, I only wanted to have a sought-after course on my application list so I could feel super smart and qualified among my peers. Well, my failure was epic because I wasn’t anywhere close to the cut-off mark for any of them.

Why do you want to study Pharmacy? Is your reason a genuine one or do you also want to have something you and your whole family can brag about? Trust me if that’s your reason, you are certainly going to struggle through your studies, and these standalone free courses unfortunately won’t be able to save you.

I wrote this article with two sets of people in mind: The ones who know what they want and are going to do everything possible to get it, and the ones who aren’t sure about what they want and are looking into many different things to find the one that would pique their interests. If you are an international student, there are opportunities to study Medical courses in Canada for free. You can find more details here. This doesn’t mean you won’t gain a thing or two if you don’t fall in any of these categories. You might be reading for a sibling or a friend, or something like this may come up in the future and then, you will be fully prepared to face your fate head-on.

It is not right that I jump right into my listing of free online pharmacy courses with certificates without first introducing you to Pharmacy so you get an idea of what the course is and is not. Let’s go through some definitions, shall we? What is Pharmacy? Let’s say you are passionate about medical sciences but don’t want to get stuck in a discipline where you will have to be studying a lot of biology and other life science courses. You want a touch of physical science courses like Chemistry, which, by the way, you can take online. This is where Pharmacy comes in. Pharmacy uses a combination of medical sciences and chemistry for drug discovery and production. This is why I tell you that being passionate about medicine isn’t enough. You need to have a knowledge of the foundational courses that make up pharmacy as a course. You need to have it in your head that in studying pharmacy you are going to be doing a lot of other courses that you may or may not like. Knowing this will help you stay when the journey starts going off course for you.

Having established that, we may now look at a concrete definition of Pharmacy. Pharmacy as a course deals with the techniques of preparing and dispensing drugs. As a student studying pharmacy, you will learn how different types of drugs affect the human body and mind and how they interact when mixed together.

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Pharmacy will involve spending time in laboratories, researching and learning about the chemistry used to develop medication. Some of the courses covered by this degree consist of Pharmaceutics, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacognosy, and Pharmacy Practice. There are a host of Medical schools that you can easily get into. In this article, more details have been provided on this. Requirements to Become a Pharmacist Pharmacy is a professional course. To become a full-fledged pharmacist, you will need to complete a four-year degree program in an accredited institution. Taking these free online pharmacy courses with certificates alone will not qualify you as a pharmacist.

If you can remember, I mentioned earlier that this article was written with two sets of people in mind: The ones who are currently enrolled in a degree program, and the ones who have yet to enroll. To become a pharmacist, you need to build the knowledge and skills to support patients in using their medicine and understand why they need it. As the healthcare sector is changing to meet the evolving needs of our society and communities, the demand and opportunity for pharmacists are constantly growing.

Here are some of the requirements you will have to meet before you can become a pharmacist 1. Earn a Bachelor’s Degree As stated earlier, pharmacy students must complete a bachelor’s degree in a science-related field or at least two years of undergraduate pre-pharmacy preparatory classes. They should check with their desired pharmacy program to see what requirements they will need for entry. Pharmacy schools also usually require a minimum grade point average of 3.0 or higher and an emphasis on biology, physics, and chemistry courses. 2. Take the PCAT Before students can enroll in most pharmacy schools, it is required that they take the Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT). The PCAT has sections that test verbal ability, chemistry, biology, reading comprehension, quantitative ability, and writing skills. 3. Enroll in a Pharmacy Program Another requirement to become a pharmacist is earning a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, or Pharm.D, from a pharmacy program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Usually, these programs take four years to complete, but then some schools offer expedited programs that take three years. 4. Pass Your State Pharmacy Licensure Exam Once the pharmacy school curriculum is complete, students will need to pass a licensure exam specific to the state in which they will work. An example is the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exam (NAPLEX). Benefits of Free Online Pharmacy Courses Free online pharmacy courses are designed to help you improve your pharmacy practice. One of its many benefits is that you obviously get trained for free without having to pay a dime.

Another benefit is that you can study at your own pace and also have access to course materials for as long as possible. This is very important because then, you will have all the information from the course right at your fingertips in case your memory needs refreshing along the way. Similarly, you can study from the comfort of your home or anywhere you find comfortable enough. This is particularly a plus in that you don’t have to hustle your way to physical classes when you can just grab your device, roll to the other side of your bed and study away. There are several other benefits of free online pharmacy courses but we will not be exploring all of those right now. Let’s look at some of the free online pharmacy courses with certificates which is undoubtedly the interesting part of this article.  12 Free Online Pharmacy Courses with Certificates In this section, we will explore some free online pharmacy courses with certificates. These courses have been carefully selected to aid your studies and facilitate your journey to becoming a pharmacist. Important course details will be provided as well as links to the course websites. Good Pharmacy Practice: Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy Services Good Pharmacy Practice: Introduction to Medication Delivery Systems Pharmacokinetics: Drug Dosing in Renal Disease Intro to Clinical Pharmacology: Dynamics and Kinetics Drug Development Product Management Specialization Pharmacy Assistant Discovering Science: Medicinal Chemistry Evidence-Based Medicine in Clinical Pharmacy Practice Become a Pharmacy Preceptor Good Pharmacy Practice: Pharmaceutical Services The Science of Medicines Essentials of Good Pharmacy Practice: The Basics 1. Good Pharmacy Practice: Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy Services Coming up first on the list of free online pharmacy courses with certificates is the first course in a multiple-part course on FutureLearn. This course is for those who are looking to develop their knowledge and understanding of clinical pharmacy services while learning how to set up their own pharmacy clinic. Offered by Taipei Medical University, this course will introduce you to clinical pharmacy services (CPS), one of the key roles of pharmacists, and what the service entails according to The Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) guidelines. Start course 2. Good Pharmacy Practice: Introduction to Medication Delivery Systems

The second course on free online pharmacy courses with certificates is Introduction to Medication Delivery Systems, a three-week continuation course on FutureLearn. In this course from Taipei Medical University, you’ll explore the different types of medication distribution systems in hospitals and the principle of evaluating drug delivery systems. Throughout the course, you’ll be taught by experienced pharmacists from Taipei Veterans General Hospital who will share their clinical experiences. Through these cases, you’ll see how Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) guidelines are being established in this hospital. According to the course provider, this course, as well as the other parts, is designed for anyone with an interest in pharmaceutical service, especially those currently practicing pharmacy. It may also be useful if you’re studying pharmacy or related biological sciences. Start course here 3. Pharmacokinetics: Drug Dosing in Renal Disease The third course on free online pharmacy courses with certificates is Drug Dosing in Renal Disease, a 6-week pharmacokinetics course for those looking to build clinical pharmacy skills and explore the complexities of drug dosing in renal disease. This course will teach you the principles of pharmacokinetics and drug dose adjustment in patients with renal disease. You will learn the basic kidney physiology and functions, including the filtration, secretion, and reabsorption of water, and the mechanisms of renal drug excretion. Similarly, you will be taught how to calculate renal clearance, and how to recommend a dosing regimen for patients with the disease. You will also explore the general principles for dosage adjustment in dialysis patients, and be able to describe the typical clinical presentation of chronic renal failure. This course is designed for you if you require clinical pharmacokinetic knowledge as an undergraduate pharmacy student, post-graduate pharmacy student, or pharmacist in clinical practice.

Start course here 4. Intro to Clinical Pharmacology: Dynamics and Kinetics Another course on free online pharmacy courses with certificates is this introductory course on Udemy. This is where you will learn the practical, real-world applications and examples of pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic principles that may affect patient care. This one-hour video course is aimed at nursing students, beginner pharmacy students, beginner medical students, beginner physician assistants, beginner nurse practitioners, dietitians, physical therapists, and pharmacy technicians. Start course here 5. Drug Development Product Management Specialization The next course on free online pharmacy courses with certificates is this specialization of three courses on Coursera. In this three-month specialization, students will l
earn the major aspects of the drug discovery process, starting with target selection, to compound screening to designing lead candidates.