[Rx2021] PA Intern Hours Reporting: State Board of Pharmacy Update

[Skledar, Susan Jean]

Hello Students,

We have received another update from the PA State Board of Pharmacy (SBOP) related to the requirement for reporting internship hours for your licensure. As you know, the PA SBOP historically has required pharmacy student interns to report 500 hours worked in a dispensing pharmacy (outside of the curriculum) to be eligible to take the PA pharmacist licensure exam. These 500 hours are counted along with 1,000 curriculum-based, or school-based, experiential hours to total the 1,500 ACPE-required hours for pharmacist licensure exam eligibility.

In 2018, the PA SBOP waived the 500 “working” hours reporting requirement for the Class of 2018, and accepted all 1,500 experiential hours from our curriculum. This aligned PA with many states in the US. The waiver was extended again to the Class of 2019. As of last week, the PA SBOP again has extended the waiver until January 1, 2022. Therefore, this waiver of reporting the 500 working hours to the PA SBOB now applies to the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021. The PA SBOP hopes that this will be a permanent change via regulations after that.

In the meantime, what does this mean for our Pitt Pharmacy students? Below is a Q&A table to explain.

Question
Answer
Comment
Does each Pitt Pharmacy PharmD student still need to obtain a PA Pharmacy Intern License?
Yes. This is required by the PA Pharmacy Act to do your school-based experiential learning.
I (Skledar) will continue to serve as your preceptor on this original license. If you obtain a working internship outside of school, you’ll need to add on that preceptor to verify your worked hours.
Should our students still obtain a pharmacy intern job?
We recommend yes, to gain essential experience within a pharmacy.

This also helps to make you more competitive as an applicant for future positions.
Are students required to submit a minimum of 500 working internship hours to the PA SBOP?
This requirement is now waived for the Class of 2020 and 2021. We highly recommend continuing to report the 500 hours, however, since this waiver is NOT TRUE for all states in the US.
If you are unsure of which state you will eventually be licensed in, we highly recommend that students report the minimum of 500 hours to PA SBOP so those hours are on-file. Once you report your first 500 hours, it is your choice to continue to report.
Do I have to report intern hours if I am working as an intern in another state?
Students must follow that state’s guidance on intern hours reporting.
Each state has different requirements for reporting and licensure.

If you have questions about this, please let stop by to see me or Dr. Pschirer.

Thank you,

Prof. Skledar

Sue Skledar, RPh, MPH, FASHP
Director of Experiential Learning and Continuing Professional Development
Professor, Department of Pharmacy & Therapeutics
University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
228 Salk Hall
3501 Terrace Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Phone: 412-648-1504
Sjs15 at pitt.edu<mailto:Sjs15 at pitt.edu>


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