| Knowledge Domains and Areas | % of PTCE® Exam Content |
| 1. | Medications | 40% |
| 1.1 | Generic names, brand names, and classifications of medications | |
| 1.2 | Therapeutic equivalence | |
| 1.3 | Common and life-threatening drug interactions and contraindications (e.g., drug-disease, drug-drug, drug-dietary supplement, drug-laboratory, drug-nutrient) | |
| 1.4* | Strengths/dose, dosage forms, routes of administration, special handling and administration instructions, and duration of drug therapy | |
| 1.5 | Common and severe medication side effects, adverse effects, and allergies | |
| 1.6 | Indications of medications and dietary supplements | |
| 1.7* | Drug stability (e.g., oral suspensions, insulin, reconstitutables, injectables, vaccinations) | |
| 1.8 | Narrow therapeutic index (NTI) medications | |
| 1.9 | Physical and chemical incompatibilities related to non-sterile compounding and reconstitution | |
| 1.10 | Proper storage of medications (e.g., temperature ranges, light sensitivity, restricted access) | |
| 2. | Federal Requirements | 12.5% |
| 2.1 | Federal requirements for handling and disposal of non-hazardous, hazardous, and pharmaceutical substances and waste | |
| 2.2* | Federal requirements for controlled substance prescriptions (i.e., new, refill, transfer) and DEA controlled substance schedules | |
| 2.3 | Federal requirements (e.g., DEA, FDA) for controlled substances (i.e., receiving, storing, ordering, labeling, dispensing, reverse distribution, take-back programs, and loss or theft of) | |
| 2.4* | Federal requirements for restricted drug programs and related medication processing (e.g., pseudoephedrine, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies [REMS]) | |
| 2.5 | FDA recall requirements (e.g., medications, devices, supplies, supplements, classifications) | |
| 3. | Patient Safety and Quality Assurance | 26.25% |
| 3.1 | High-alert/risk medications and look-alike/sound-alike [LASA] medications | |
| 3.2 | Error prevention strategies (e.g., prescription or medication order to correct patient, Tall Man lettering, separating inventory, leading and trailing zeros, bar code usage, limit use of error-prone abbreviations) | |
| 3.3* | Issues that require pharmacist intervention (e.g., drug utilization review [DUR], adverse drug event [ADE], OTC recommendation, therapeutic substitution, misuse, adherence, post-immunization follow-up, allergies, drug interactions) | |
| 3.4 | Event reporting procedures (e.g., medication errors, adverse effects, and product integrity, MedWatch, near miss, root-cause analysis [RCA]) | |
| 3.5* | Types of prescription errors (e.g., abnormal doses, early refill, incorrect quantity, incorrect patient, incorrect drug) | |
| 3.6 | Hygiene and cleaning standards (e.g., handwashing, personal protective equipment [PPE], cleaning counting trays, countertop, and equipment) | |
| 4. | Order Entry and Processing | 21.25% |
| 4.1* | Procedures to compound non-sterile products (e.g., ointments, mixtures, liquids, emulsions, suppositories, enemas) | |
| 4.2* | Formulas, calculations, ratios, proportions, alligations, conversions, Sig codes (e.g., b.i.d., t.i.d., Roman numerals), abbreviations, medical terminology, and symbols for days supply, quantity, dose, concentration, dilutions | |
| 4.3* | Equipment/supplies required for drug administration (e.g., package size, unit dose, diabetic supplies, spacers, oral and injectable syringes) | |
| 4.4* | Lot numbers, expiration dates, and National Drug Code (NDC) numbers | |
| 4.5 | Procedures for identifying and returning dispensable, non-dispensable, and expired medications and supplies (e.g., credit return, return to stock, reverse distribution) | |
*Some or all of this statement reflects calculation-based knowledge.