<p>A few months ago, I posted a thread about motor skills and the pharmd curriculum. On the advice of the pharmacy school at my uni, I shadowed a variety of pharmacists, both at a general hospital IV center and at specialty clinics. The pharmacists all said they did very little compounding, but the IV compounding looked like it could pose a problem for me. I loved the shadowing, and it really made me excited about going in the pharmacy. Over the summer, I talked to people at another pharm. school, and they seemed far less concerned about potential difficulties with compounding but did mention physical assessment classes as a possible issue.</p>
<p>Back at my uni, I took a skills “test” (not formally assessed) where I had the opportunity to see whether or not pharm. school would be physically possible for me within the realm of reasonable accommodations. I could do some of the skills with reasonable accommodations but struggled at sterile IV compounding and especially topical cream making. After this assessment, I spoke to the pharm. school rep. and “proctor,” and she said that it seemed unlikely that I could get through the compounding curriculum and licensing practical exam with reasonable accommodations, and I don’t think she was being unfair-- I think compounding may just be too physical/fine motor-y for me, and it’s required for the degree and license, even if not for all pharmacy jobs.</p>
<p>The thing is, I’m still loath to give up my dream of pharm. school, but I also don’t want to get into school only to fail out, be unlicensable, or (God forbid) be a medical danger to someone (not that I would take a job with heavy compounding).</p>
<p>Thanks for reading and any thoughts should be appreciated!</p>
<p>Good luck. It is hard to switch dreams, but it sounds very mature of you to investigate now. The old cliche “those who can’t, teach” may apply. You may look into similar areas that allow for teaching others instead of doing the work. I understand why you would want this field, so talk to people in Pharmacy and other medically related fields, try for a next best fit. The cliche “life is full of compromises” does not mean you won’t be able to fall in love with something else.</p>
<p>I salute you in advance for taking such a mature approach.</p>
<p>Without attempting to consider your medical condition, I do have a question, though. I know lots of folks (in other fields) who, given reasonable accommodations but not knowing precisely how they would be assessed, would never get through a practical exam. However, with knowing, and huge amounts of practice applied, things that were impossible all of a sudden (but after large amounts of energy) become within the realm of possibility. You see this with athletes all the time. Granted, they all “normal bodied” - but there are pitchers who can’t (theoretically because of their body-type, etc.) can’t throw more than 77 mph find themselves in the 90s, 200 hitters who work on eye-motion training all of a sudden (but after months of work) hit 300, etc. </p>
<p>(I have even seen my own older d., a musician, born without perfect pitch, train herself over a period of many months so that now, in fact, she has it. I had no idea that was even possible, but she assures me it is, and told me how she went about it.) </p>
<p>At any rate…I would do just one more thing before abandoning the plan. See a graduate level occupational therapist, someone who would have experience with this sort of thing over a wide variety of fields. Find out for certain what is within your range of possibilities. Yes, you may have to lay out a bit of money for it, but it would be well worth knowing for sure. (And I apologize if you’ve already done so - it’s just a thought.)</p>