Pharmacy internship: patient care experience through nursing service.

A pharmacy internship that offers graduated levels of hospital experience, with an emphasis on nursing assistant and medication administration programs, is described. Students work full time in the summer and part time during the academic year in the three-year program. The progression of duties is as follows: nursing assistant; inpatient drug distribution and control; sterile and nonsterile product production; patient education, monitoring and medication history-taking activities; drug information services; and medication administration. Interns are selected by the pharmacy department and trained and supervised by the nursing staff in nursing assistant and medication aide roles. The program provides the pharmacy department with a highly trained corps of interns who understand and appreciate the full range of systems required to deliver patient care and provides interns with patient-oriented work experiences valuable in their future roles as pharmacists.