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MPJE Competency Statements

As of October 2023

The Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination® (MPJE®) Competency Statements provide a blueprint of the topics covered on the examination. They offer important information about the knowledge, judgment, and skills you are expected to demonstrate while taking the MPJE. A strong understanding of the Competency Statements will aid you in your preparation to take the examination.

Your formal education, training, practical experience, and self-study prepare you for the MPJE. The MPJE has been designed to assess how well you apply your knowledge, skills, and abilities to evaluate situations involving the applicable federal and state laws and regulations that govern the practice of pharmacy in the state in which you are seeking licensure. Additional information may also be obtained from the state board of pharmacy where you are seeking licensure.

Note: No distinction is made in the examination between federal and state jurisprudence questions. You are required to answer each question in terms of the prevailing laws of the state in which you are seeking licensure.

Area 1 — Licensure/Personnel (22% of the Exam)

1.1 – Responsibilities of the pharmacist and non-pharmacist personnel

  • Qualifications, scope of duties, limitations, and restrictions of duties, or conditions to practice for pharmacists-in-charge (or equivalent) and pharmacists
  • Qualifications, scope of duties, limitations, and restrictions of duties, or conditions to practice for non-pharmacist personnel

1.2 – Licensures, registrations, and certifications for pharmacists or non-pharmacist personnel

  • Qualifications, examinations, internships, maintaining pharmacist competency, and renewals of licensures, registrations, or certifications
  • Classifications and processes of disciplinary actions
  • Reporting to and participating in programs addressing the inability to practice with reasonable skill and safety

Area 2 — Pharmacist Practice (33% of the Exam)

2.1 – Requirements for issuing prescriptions/drug orders

  • Requirements for drug uses, limitations, or restrictions
  • Scope of authority, scope of practice, limitations or restrictions of practice, and valid registration of practitioners who are authorized to prescribe, dispense, or administer drugs
  • Requirements for issuing non-controlled prescriptions/drug orders
  • Requirements for issuing controlled prescriptions/drug orders
  • Authority limitations of practitioners’ ability to authorize refills

2.2 – Conditions under which the pharmacist or non-pharmacist personnel participates in the administration of drugs in the management of patients’ therapy

2.3 – Requirements regarding counseling

  • Counseling or offering to counsel
  • Documenting counseling or documenting offering to counsel

2.4 – Returning or reusing drugs

2.5 – Regulations and agencies regarding pharmacy practice

  • Requirements for promoting quality and safety of public health
  • Protecting patient and health record confidentiality

Area 3 — Dispensing Requirements (24% of the Exam)

3.1 – Responsibilities for determining whether prescriptions/drug orders are issued for a legitimate medical purpose, and within all applicable restrictions

3.2 – Transferring prescription/drug order information between pharmacies by authorized personnel

3.3 – Prospective drug utilization reviews

  • Requirements for reporting to PMP and accessing PMP data

3.4 – Exceptions to dispensing or refilling prescriptions/drug orders

3.5 – Labeling of dispensed drugs

3.6 – Packaging of dispensed drugs

3.7 – Drug product conditions prohibiting dispensing

3.8 – Requirements for the distribution and/or dispensing of non-prescription pharmaceutical products, including controlled substances and hazardous drugs

  • Dispensing or administration
  • Labeling of non-prescription drugs and devices
  • Packaging and repackaging of non-prescription drugs and behind-the-counter products
  • Dispensing-restricted, non-prescription drugs

Area 4 — Pharmacy Operations (21% of the Exam)

4.1 – Ordering, acquisition, and distribution of drugs, including maintenance and content of such records

  • Ordering and acquisition, including the maintenance and content of such records
  • Distribution, including the maintenance and content of such records

4.2 – Recordkeeping in compliance with legal requirements, including content, inventory, maintenance, storage, handling, and reporting

  • Non-dispensing requirements for operations of pharmacies or practice settings
  • Possession, storage, and handling of non-hazardous drugs
  • Training, possession, handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous drugs
  • Allowing non-pharmacist personnel access to drugs
  • Requirements for conducting controlled substance inventories

4.3 – Delivery of drugs

4.4 – Conditions for permitted or mandated product selection

4.5 – Compounding sterile, nonsterile, hazardous, and non-hazardous preparations

4.6 – Centralized prescription processing or central-fill pharmacy dispensing

4.7 – Requirements for the registration, licensure, certification, or permitting of a practice setting or business entity

  • Requirements for registration, license, certification, or permitting of a practice setting
  • Requirements for the renewal or reinstatement of a license, registration, certificate, or permit of a practice setting
  • Requirements for an inspection of a licensed, registered, certified, or permitted practice setting
  • Classifications and processes of disciplinary actions that may be taken against a registered, licensed, certified, or permitted practice setting