DEAN RUFUS A. LYMAN

College of Pharmacy

ITHIN the last three years the Research Committee of the Commonwealth Fund has expended a total of thirty-two thousand dollars in making a study of scientific pharmacy from the functional standpoint. This study has been made by a committee of experts selected from scientific men interested in pharmacy, from men interested in pharmaceutical education. The study was directed by Dr. W. W. Charters of the School of Education of the University of Chicago. The method underlying the study may be simply stated as follows: The study was a functional one, that is, it was a study in which the first step was to find out just what the pharmacist does. The second step was to discover what he must know to perform these duties intelligently. The duties of the pharmacist uncovered by the functional study may be classified under twelve general headings.

   They include his duties as a citizen, concerning his profession, as a merchant, those connected with the compounding and the manufacture of compounds which he uses as prescriptions. He also has duties concerned with disease, public health, other scientific information, the distribution of alcohol, narcotics and poisons, and with the knowledge of the contents of those codes which establish a legal standard for the things used in medicine and in the industries. One of the greatest duties of the pharmacist is concerned with himself and his growth in knowledge and skill after he has been graduated from college.

   The College of Pharmacy in the University of Nebraska, in common with all such teaching institutions, has as its objective the training of students so that these duties may be performed intelligently by those who practice pharmacy and in addition, it intends to train students in such a way, so that they, as practitioners of pharmacy, may be able to train themselves to adapt themselves to the ever-changing conditions of pharmaceutical practice. The College of Pharmacy is constantly growing and assuming new duties. As a larger number of students attend the College each year the duties of the school become greater.

 

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