What is the Uniform MPJE?
Have you heard about the new Uniform MPJE? Are you considering taking it? What is the point of creating this exam anyway? You’ve come to the right place!
There are 3 obvious reasons for the creation of the UMPJE:
- It allows a pharmacist to practice “in” multiple jurisdictions, or to serve patients in multiple jurisdictions. For example, most states require a compounding pharmacy that ships medications into their state to not only have the pharmacy licensed in their state, but maybe also require the PIC to be licensed in their state as well as any pharmacists serving patients in their state. In this regard, the UMPJE is obviously a huge win for pharmacists that are required to have licensure in multiple states in order to serve patients in multiple states.
- Quicker licensure approval. In theory, Boards of Pharmacy may be able to more quickly approve pharmacist applicants for licensure with a streamlined process that doesn’t require scheduling of a new exam. Hopefully this allows pharmacists to gain licensure in a more expeditious manner!
- The UMPJE approach better aligns with other healthcare professionals, such as nurses, who can easily practice across stateliness with the nurse-version of the UMPJE, the “nurse licensure compact” – should we start NurseLaw?
What is different compared to the MPJE?
Now let’s talk about the exam itself. What has changed? What’s different about the UMPJE compared to the MPJE?
To state the obvious, in looking at the Content Outline, it’s clear that the content covered will be much more general than the MPJE. Duh, obviously this has to be the case! For example, where the state-specific MPJE might require knowledge of HOW MANY Continuing Education credit hours are required, the UMPJE cannot require this kind of detail because it varies state-to-state. A blog posted by NABP basically confirms this as well, by implying the UMPJE will “assess core legal principles” regardless of state. Topics that differ state-to-state, such as the number of CE hours, licensure deadlines, or technician ratios, will have to be excluded from the UMPJE.
Secondly, the UMPJE content outline lists specific organizations that are not listed on the MPJE Competency Statements, such as NIOSH, OSHA, and even HHS. Although these organizations are huge and do a wide variety of things, it is nice to have some directly named organizations in the Content Outline. This does seem to be a slight distinction from the MPJE content, although some concepts are likely applicable to both exams.
Third, sources. This one is particularly interesting for us at PharmLaw. As you’ll know if you’ve taken one of our PharmLaw MPJE courses before, for every single quiz question we cite our sources using the state law verbatim (in addition to federal as needed). This obviously helps our users see how we’re getting to our answers and provides additional context as needed. However, since the UMPJE is not state specific, what sources are we supposed to site? More importantly, what source is NABP drawing from for each of their answers? According to the content outline, “Question writers must also provide a reference that validates the correct answer choice for each question.” Interesting huh? Maybe “a reference” is from Ohio for one question, and maybe “a reference” is from North Carolina for another question.
What is similar compared to the MPJE?
You may be thinking…. well surely some of the UMPJE content must be similar to the MPJE content, right? YES! There does seem to be a decent amount of commonalities. For example, it seems both exams cover compounding, scope of practice, CPAs, counseling, transfers, partial fills, controlled substance inventory and recordkeeping, and more! At risk of stating the obvious (again) pharmacy law and pharmacy practice hasn’t changed just because of a new licensure exam. So yes, there will likely be some crossover topics, but how much crossover remains to be seen!
Other similarities may be found in the “exam bulletin” when it is released, which it is not at the time of writing this blog. It seems that the number of UMPJE exam questions will be 100, which is kind of the same as the MPJE if you only count the 100 MPJE questions that count toward the score. It’s unclear at this time how much time you’ll be given to complete the exam, but we expect it to be around 2 hours.
Study Guide and Quiz Prep!
As you may have seen, the first 5 states to officially adopt the UMPJE are Ohio, North Carolina, Kansas, Rhode Island, and Iowa. The first exams are set to begin in April 2026! Time to begin studying :)
At PharmLaw, we have been helping pharmacists pass the MPJE for 5 years, and our users have a 95% pass rate as determined by our money-back guarantee that you pass. Although a new exam may be a little bit intimidating, we’re confident that our UMPJE material will prepare you for success on your first attempt!
