PharmD Professor

[Violet Lavender]

Im a prospective PharmD student and i wish to be a professor in the said field. Im just 18 so dont know much. Please i need your help

So after getting Phd say in pharmacology or any other research area that PharmDs can do, will i get a professorship in a PharmD college? I know its a professional degree not really related to a research area but i've heard it is possible to get Phd after PharmD!


Any insight anyone can give

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[Wheresmyaricept]

Most of the therapeutics professors are just regular PharmD's that have special certification in their field (BCPS, DABAT, CGE, BCOP, etc.). Doing a pharmd/phd is a huge time commitment and you're not going to get much extra benefit out of it.


Are you planning on just teaching? Because most professors are also actively practicing pharmacists. It's pretty hard to go right into academia at an established school with no pharmacy experience.

 

[Violet Lavender]

 

[MindGeek]

Yes im planning on just teaching. So its a necessity to pass NAPLEX, compounding exam to be a PharmD professor? Im sorry if i sound stupid, dont know much about the whole process

It's not that simple. Most clinical professors (the Pharm.D.'s) typically split their time between teaching at the college certain days and practicing at their hospital or ambulatory care site. You get most of your pay from the college and your benefits are from the college but you must maintain a practice site, mostly for being able to take on APPEs and IPPEs there. If somehow you got dismissed from your practice site you'd have to resign your post as a professor. Pharmaceutical Science professors (Ph.D's) do not have to maintain a practice site, but do research in between teaching, but can also take on APPEs/IPPEs.

The compounding exam is just for NY and GA. You'll need the NAPLEX and some form of law exam anywhere.

Most clinical professors will have at least a PGY-1 residency. If you're expecting to teach right after passing boards you'd better have another post graduate degree like an MBA, MPH, or MAT. Even if a school loves you, a practice site has to be willing to hire you with zero experience or it's no deal. Administrative Sciences professors don't have practice sites but typically will have MPH's, JD's, MPA's, or MBA's.

Focus now on getting into pharmacy school. If you love classes you're in right now that have duplication during P1&P2 year like A&P, biochemistry, organic, etc., than feel free to mention during the interview that you see yourself teaching one of those someday to pharmacy students.

Once you're in pharmacy school do research as electives on pedagogy topics. This will demonstrate you're serious about teaching someday soon. I mean you have to take electives anyway, might as well make them career specific for you. Also find a professor to mentor you and then enter the Walmart AACP Scholars Program with them. You get a $1,000 scholarship to do an education project in pharmacy academia with your faculty mentor and present it a their annual conference. It is for pharmacy students pursuing academia and that is you!

I didn't fully understand what clinical professors do until I was on APPEs with them for entire days/weeks/months. P1's and P2's have lighter schedules so find a professor and ask them if you could spend the entire day shadowing them. Every minute by their side. Professors have a lot to deal with aside from teaching that goes unnoticed.

 

[Violet Lavender]

 

[Violet Lavender]

It's not that simple. Most clinical professors (the Pharm.D.'s) typically split their time between teaching at the college certain days and practicing at their hospital or ambulatory care site. You get most of your pay from the college and your benefits are from the college but you must maintain a practice site, mostly for being able to take on APPEs and IPPEs there. If somehow you got dismissed from your practice site you'd have to resign your post as a professor. Pharmaceutical Science professors (Ph.D's) do not have to maintain a practice site, but do research in between teaching, but can also take on APPEs/IPPEs.

The compounding exam is just for NY and GA. You'll need the NAPLEX and some form of law exam anywhere.

Most clinical professors will have at least a PGY-1 residency. If you're expecting to teach right after passing boards you'd better have another post graduate degree like an MBA, MPH, or MAT. Even if a school loves you, a practice site has to be willing to hire you with zero experience or it's no deal. Administrative Sciences professors don't have practice sites but typically will have MPH's, JD's, MPA's, or MBA's.

Focus now on getting into pharmacy school. If you love classes you're in right now that have duplication during P1&P2 year like A&P, biochemistry, organic, etc., than feel free to mention during the interview that you see yourself teaching one of those someday to pharmacy students.

Once you're in pharmacy school do research as electives on pedagogy topics. This will demonstrate you're serious about teaching someday soon. I mean you have to take electives anyway, might as well make them career specific for you. Also find a professor to mentor you and then enter the Walmart AACP Scholars Program with them. You get a $1,000 scholarship to do an education project in pharmacy academia with your faculty mentor and present it a their annual conference. It is for pharmacy students pursuing academia and that is you!

I didn't fully understand what clinical professors do until I was on APPEs with them for entire days/weeks/months. P1's and P2's have lighter schedules so find a professor and ask them if you could spend the entire day shadowing them. Every minute by their side. Professors have a lot to deal with aside from teaching that goes unnoticed.

Thank you so much for providing such vast information. So how hard it is to fing a PGY-1 residency? got any idea?

 

[Violet Lavender]

Most of the therapeutics professors are just regular PharmD's that have special certification in their field (BCPS, DABAT, CGE, BCOP, etc.). Doing a pharmd/phd is a huge time commitment and you're not going to get much extra benefit out of it.


Are you planning on just teaching? Because most professors are also actively practicing pharmacists. It's pretty hard to go right into academia at an established school with no pharmacy experience.

Yes im just planning on teaching. Is it necessary to pass NAPLEX for being a PharmD professor?

 

[MindGeek]

Thank you so much for providing such vast information. So how hard it is to fing a PGY-1 residency? got any idea?

Finding a residency is the easy part. All the accredited ones are listed in this database...
http://accred.ashp.org/aps/pages/directory/residencyProgramSearch.aspx

Getting into a residency is a completely different story.

And keep in mind that almost all PGY-1's are general pharmacy practice residencies in hospitals. Residencies are very intense and all-consuming so if you don't have a passion for hospital pharmacy it's not going to work out.

 

[ChalupaBatman86]

Yes im just planning on teaching. Is it necessary to pass NAPLEX for being a PharmD professor?

Why do you hate NAPLEX so much? If you are going to attend school for 6 years and spend $100k+ then why not just get the license? Are you a pot head Focker?

 

[MindGeek]

Yes im just planning on teaching. Is it necessary to pass NAPLEX for being a PharmD professor?

Legally/technically 'teaching' may not be in your states definition on pharmacists' scope of practice.

Practically (and legally in NY at least) if you're a Pharm.D.-type professor you won't be allowed to supervise pharmacy interns in a clinical patient specific way unless you're fully licensed.

After surviving P&T/D&D and all the hurdles that pharmacy school sends your way you won't see the NAPLEX as the end of the world.

Again thinking practically, it's much easier to get licensed right out of school, and get licensed in more than one state right out of school through the score transfer process so you don't have to take the NAPLEX more than once and your licenses will be Original, not by Reciprocity.

Also, looking into the future there is a pharmacy school bubble that is going to burst. Pharmacy school applications peaked back in the 2009-10 cycle at 111,744, dropped down to 87,956 just three cycles later. Yet the number of schools is on a steep incline. Let's say that you land your dream job and somehow you don't have to be licensed in it. If you get let go for any reason you have zero job mobility until you finally get licensed mid-career.

Do yourself a favor and plan on getting licensed. Plus residencies and grad internships are going to require that you get licensed within 90-120 days or you're in breach of contract.

 

[gwarm01]

What sort of pharmacy courses do you think you'll be able to teach without having practiced? What sort of university is going to hire a PharmD with no experience to teach it's students? You might want to reconsider this path.

 

[Leper Messiah]

It's sounding more and more like you should get a Ph.D. Those are the professors that actually teach about immunology, pharmacology, kinetics, medchem, etc. The plain PharmD faculty are the ones that teach the "softer" stuff like law, ethics, practice, and so on. The exception is therapeutics lectures. Those professors are usually licensed pharmacists with residency, experience, BCPS, etc.

 

[Violet Lavender]

It's sounding more and more like you should get a Ph.D. Those are the professors that actually teach about immunology, pharmacology, kinetics, medchem, etc. The plain PharmD faculty are the ones that teach the "softer" stuff like law, ethics, practice, and so on. The exception is therapeutics lectures. Those professors are usually licensed pharmacists with residency, experience, BCPS, etc.

Okay so what do i need to do to get into Phd in top universities? whats the minimum thing university expects from the prospective Phd students?

 

[Doc Hawaii]

Having completed both routes, perhaps my input may help. PhDs come in a variety of forms and flavors: the social sciences have PhDs, as do the hard sciences. You apply to universities in the fall of your final undergraduate or Master's year for admission. PhD admissions are easy because thousands of universities offer then in all disciplines, and the pay is low for long hours. In the sciences, tuition+stipend+benefits are included once accepted. You normally have 3 rotations in different labs for approx 2 months each, at which time you choose one lab to complete your doctorate in, or continue for another rotation. You then work for ~4-6+ yrs to complete a sweeping project (or multiple projects). You will have a written and oral examination after 2 yrs to continue, which you can fail, as well as a final defense that is oral and a written final thesis. There is no license for a PhD and you will be competing with the world for post-doctoral positions and grant funding. The pay is low, and not everyone will eventually land a R23 Grant or a tenure position. Plenty of great scientists are stuck in perpetual post-doc hell moving every 2-3 yrs to another university, with no real chance of ever landing a faculty position. Pharma seems to be cyclic with layoffs every 5 yrs.

A PharmD is a clinical degree, with a terminal license necessary in order to function and be paid as a pharmacist. Pharmacists have their our own scope of practice, different from that of nurses or physicians. In the US, everyone takes a relatively easy national exam after graduation: NAPLEX, which can be passed with minimal-to-no studying. Do you consider an examination where 98-100% of your class passes on the first try difficult? Then you take a state 'law' exam. GA and NY appear to have compounding tests too. You must pass both exams to practice in that state. The first question that any employer asks, "Do you have an active pharmacist license?" Any professional career that needs a license to practice creates a barrier to employment and increases pay. A PhD cannot work as a pharmacist because they lack that crucial license, but some PharmDs conduct research and are faculty.

Both routes are difficult. Have you shadowed a pharmacist? Have you tried working as a pharmacy assistant? Have you talked to current pharmacy students in person?

Pharmacy is fairly saturated, but I see a lot of nursing, PA, PT, MD/DO jobs everywhere.

Goodluck!

 

[Violet Lavender]

Having completed both routes, perhaps my input may help. PhDs come in a variety of forms and flavors: the social sciences have PhDs, as do the hard sciences. You apply to universities in the fall of your final undergraduate or Master's year for admission. PhD admissions are easy because thousands of universities offer then in all disciplines, and the pay is low for long hours. In the sciences, tuition+stipend+benefits are included once accepted. You normally have 3 rotations in different labs for approx 2 months each, at which time you choose one lab to complete your doctorate in, or continue for another rotation. You then work for ~4-6+ yrs to complete a sweeping project (or multiple projects). You will have a written and oral examination after 2 yrs to continue, which you can fail, as well as a final defense that is oral and a written final thesis. There is no license for a PhD and you will be competing with the world for post-doctoral positions and grant funding. The pay is low, and not everyone will eventually land a R23 Grant or a tenure position. Plenty of great scientists are stuck in perpetual post-doc hell moving every 2-3 yrs to another university, with no real chance of ever landing a faculty position. Pharma seems to be cyclic with layoffs every 5 yrs.

A PharmD is a clinical degree, with a terminal license necessary in order to function and be paid as a pharmacist. Pharmacists have their our own scope of practice, different from that of nurses or physicians. In the US, everyone takes a relatively easy national exam after graduation: NAPLEX, which can be passed with minimal-to-no studying. Do you consider an examination where 98-100% of your class passes on the first try difficult? Then you take a state 'law' exam. GA and NY appear to have compounding tests too. You must pass both exams to practice in that state. The first question that any employer asks, "Do you have an active pharmacist license?" Any professional career that needs a license to practice creates a barrier to employment and increases pay. A PhD cannot work as a pharmacist because they lack that crucial license, but some PharmDs conduct research and are faculty.

Both routes are difficult. Have you shadowed a pharmacist? Have you tried working as a pharmacy assistant? Have you talked to current pharmacy students in person?

Pharmacy is fairly saturated, but I see a lot of nursing, PA, PT, MD/DO jobs everywhere.

Goodluck!

Yes!! the job saturation scares me too! thats why thinking to doing Phd after Pharmd after doing Phd cant i teach in Pharmd colleges????

 

[gwarm01]

Yes!! the job saturation scares me too! thats why thinking to doing Phd after Pharmd after doing Phd cant i teach in Pharmd colleges????

Sure. Many of my professors were PharmD/Phd. Many more were BSPharm/Phd. Pharmacology, med chem, A&P were all taught by pharmacists with PhDs.

 

[y0ssarian87]

Yes!! the job saturation scares me too! thats why thinking to doing Phd after Pharmd after doing Phd cant i teach in Pharmd colleges????

Think carefully about that decision. The cost of a PharmD is not inconsequential, and if you pursue a PhD afterward, each year you spend in a PhD program, your PharmD loans will continue to accrue interest. If you truly want a PhD, you may want to consider a PharmD/PhD dual degree or consider pursuing the PhD first.

And be sure you know where each degree will get you. Will you have to pursue an academic post-doc after your PhD? Will you also do a residency? Fellowship? These are all largely dependent on what you want to study. Are you familiar with academic research and competing for grants? If you're looking for a pharmacy practice position (as opposed to a pharmaceutical science position or a health outcomes position), you'll need professional practice experience. Please make sure you know what you want to do. The time and cost of this education are burdensome.