Is pharmacy a stem major(solved)?
if you ask if the pharmacy is a stem major or not, in this post, you will find detailed information.
Also, some other stem careers to look for.
is pharmacy a stem major?
Pharmacy is not a stem major, but you have to understand that Pharmacy has a lot of similar STEM major occupations. For instance, if you want to study pharmacology in this case you will be considered a stem major. But when we talk about being a pharmacist like the traditional pharmacists that we know, selling medicaments. As a result, you won’t be considered a stem major.
So, if you want to study or work in the stem Pharmacy industry, you have to choose to become a pharmaceutical scientist or an engineer. In this case, you would be considered a stem major.
But if you decided to keep to stay in general pharmacist you won’t take scientific enough knowledge to join the STEM club.
One of the main interesting occupations that pharmacists focus on is marketing and sales. In addition, a superficial scientific background in biology and chemistry.
But that is nothing compared to complex topics medical students study like surgery or neuroscience. So even though pharmacists study some science topics, it remains not enough to be aggregated as stem occupation.
In the next paragraph, we’re going to discover in detail why pharmacists are not considered stem majors.
why pharmacy is not a stem major
Before responding to this question we have to understand what is the stem.
STEM is an abbreviation or acronym term for science engineering technology and Mathematics. So to consider a major or occupation as a stem field at least it has to include one of these 4 Concepts.
So our principal question or goal is to prove if a pharmacy is not a stem major, by responding to the 4 following questions:
- is Pharmacy a science?
- Does Pharmacy involve technology?
- is it Pharmacy engineering?
- is Pharmacy mathematics field?
So let”s go and respond to each question, to know the fact about pharmacy and stem.
1- Is Pharmacy a science?
Pharmacy is a science, there is no evidence. Is a science of health and social science combined…
health is involved in giving patients medicament with the right dosage and all related information to use these medicaments in their therapy.
But the problem with pharmacists is they don’t focus enough on the biomedical Pharmacy studies that are related to medicament fabrication, to consider them stem majors.
They are not like pharmaceutical scientists or Engineer pharmacists who dig Deeper into scientific knowledge and engineering. Therefore, makes them excluded from the stem occupation regarding studying biology and chemistry subjects.
The principal job of a pharmacist is to dispense prescriptions and medicaments to patients and also advise them about how to use them. But when we talk about stem occupations like pharmacology or biomedical science things go further than that.
Pharmacologists and biomedical scientists go deeper and focus on the chemical composition of the medicaments by using their own knowledge to keep these medicaments safe and respected in the right proportions.
this is not to disrespect pharmacy but just to give an example of the difference between two-sector.
2 – Does Pharmacy involve technology?
Pharmacists don’t produce or contribute by creating new technologies like biomedical or pharmaceutical engineers. This is the second reason that makes a pharmacy not included in stem majors.
Pharmacists spend the majority of their time taking care of patients using their scientific background in Psychology skills to communicate with them and understand their needs. So it is a job that has some kind of social science aspect.
They aren’t like mechanical or electrical engineers who need to design a machine from scratch to finally release it to the market. Or even biomedical engineers who need to design prosthetic arms for people who have disabilities.
So technology is out of general pharmacy specializations not like pharmacologists or pharmaceutics scientists. These stem fields include a lot of Technology but it’s not the case that we are talking about in this article.
3 – Is pharmacy Is engineering
Pharmacy is not an engineering topic is it scientific or even better say medical a field that has a lot of administration and management rather than being patient-oriented.
That being said pharmacists don’t make surgeries or treat people like Doctors, So their principal goal is to communicate and Consulte patients to finally give them advice or instruction on how to use medicaments.
In addition, they are not engineers who design specific medical engineering tools as biomedical engineers do.
So this is the third reason why Pharmacy does not stem majors that is a close career to a pharmacy or occupation call it technician pharmacist which is a stem occupation but there is a big difference between Pharmacist and technician pharmacist.
We’re going to talk later in our article about the pharmacist technician occupation as an alternative stem career recommend to focus on health and engineering. if you want to study Pharmacy and stay in the stem domain.
4 – Is pharmacy involve mathematics
As a pharmacist, you will not dig deeper in math like other pharmacy occupations, such as pharmaceutical science or engineering occupation.
You would be studying all mathematics subjects such as algebra, statistics, and some basics calculus. They are going just to be a preparation to study Advanced subject if you want to take a specialization and you became a scientific pharmaceutic or scientific engineer.
but this path is a little bit tougher which in most cases requires you to have a Ph.D.
5 – Summary
In general, when we look at the pharmacy we don’t find a very focused on mathematics or scientific subject. In addition, the Pharmacy domain doesn’t have any contribution or existence in the engineering and Technology field, meaning pharmacists don’t produce any technology as engineers. But except for specific specializations that we mentioned before.
In the next two-step we’re going to discover 5 related careers you should take if you love Pharmacy and want to become a stem major student.
5 stem career related to pharmacy
1 – Pharmaceutical Technology
As a pharmaceutical Technologies, your principal goal will be to make a lot of experiments and tests in labs. Also, be responsible for all the laboratory materials pharmaceutical scientists or engineers use.
Normally pharmaceutical technologists work with medicaments companies according to the chemical and biological background they have which is used in medical production.
2 – Pharmaceutical scientists
If you want to reach the top and become the leader in the pharmacy industry you have to be patient in the beginning to reach this level of knowledge allowing you to become a pharmaceutical scientist. but finally, is a very financially rewarding career.
In other words as a pharmaceutical scientist, you will be working in the development and research of new medicaments substances or consistency. you’ll be an innovator or could be even an inventor in this field.
3 – Pharmaceutical engineer
Pharmaceutical engineers’ principal job is to design and combine all their knowledge to design new chemical plans or recipes for companies. In order to implement them in new medicaments. Also, improve their quality by making a lot of tests and experiments.
4 – chemical engineer
The last occupation to take is if you want to go a little bit away from the medical field, chemical engineering will have a lot of opportunities and flexibility to choose careers depending on your interest.
you can also work in the medical field with a chemical engineering degree. At the same time, you can work in related different sectors like nuclear engineering food industry, or chemical product fabrication.
5 – pharmaceutical technician
If you love some technics and fixing stuff like a machine, and you love o rely on the medical field you could become a pharmaceutical technician fixing all the pharmacy and paramedical machines.
