R.Ph vs. Pharm.D.

[star777]

What is an R.Ph? Is it different from a Pharm.D.? One of the doctors I volunteer with is an R.Ph, not a Pharm.D. Is it still ok to get a LOR from him?

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[rxforlife2004]

RPh = registered Pharmacist = someone who already graduated at an accredited pharmacy school (obtaining BS or Pharm.D) and went through the registration process to become one R.Ph.

Pharm.D = degree awarded to those who attend pharmacy school...it doesn't mean these indivitual already registered with the board of pharmacy.

Most pharmacists in practice are R.Ph, Pharm.D.

 

[LVPharm]

I have a Pharm.D. degree, and according to the board of pharmacy, I am licensed as an R.Ph. This is just the designation of a "registered pharmacist". If, suppose I didn't apply for a license to practice pharmacy (and pass the requisite board exams), I would not be an RPh, I would only have my Pharm.D. degree. Often, older pharmacists who graduated with the BSPharm degree will use RPh at the end of their name. I suppose I can use either, or both a Pharm.D. and the RPh, but to do so would be superfluous. I just use Pharm.D. As for your LOR, anyone in pharmacy knows what an RPh is, and will not question the value of the LOR based on whether or not the writer had a baccalaureate in pharmacy, or a doctorate. A pharmacist is a pharmacist, regardless of the letters they attach to their name.

 

[lord999]

RPh = registered Pharmacist = someone who already graduated at an accredited pharmacy school (obtaining BS or Pharm.D) and went through the registration process to become one R.Ph.

Pharm.D = degree awarded to those who attend pharmacy school...it doesn't mean these indivitual already registered with the board of pharmacy.

Most pharmacists in practice are R.Ph, Pharm.D.

Not necessarily true.
There are 140 pharmacists in AZ that DO NOT have a college degree at all. They just took the boards. The BOP's don't allow this anymore, Minnesota was the last to grant the title of Rph without a degree in 1976. Rph just means that you are a registered pharmacist that passed with the qualifications at the time. Pharm.D. is an academic title that is wholly separate from the licensing part. You can have the degree but not be licensed, although it generally implies such because most states have laws against self-identification as a "pharmacist" if you don't have a license. So my name would be written "lord999, Pharm.D., R.Ph."

For historical reference in AZ:
~140 pharmacists do not have a degree
~3 have a preWWII Pharmaceutical Chemist qualification (Ph.C., Ph.B., Ph,M., D.Ph.)
The rest have B.S. Pharm. or Pharm. D.

 

[ilovepharmacy]

Not necessarily true.
There are 140 pharmacists in AZ that DO NOT have a college degree at all. They just took the boards. The BOP's don't allow this anymore, Minnesota was the last to grant the title of Rph without a degree in 1976. Rph just means that you are a registered pharmacist that passed with the qualifications at the time. Pharm.D. is an academic title that is wholly separate from the licensing part. You can have the degree but not be licensed, although it generally implies such because most states have laws against self-identification as a "pharmacist" if you don't have a license. So my name would be written "lord999, Pharm.D., R.Ph."

For historical reference in AZ:
~140 pharmacists do not have a degree
~3 have a preWWII Pharmaceutical Chemist qualification (Ph.C., Ph.B., Ph,M., D.Ph.)
The rest have B.S. Pharm. or Pharm. D.

for 1 AM, this was such an interesting fact to me..

 

[ProZackMI]

What is an R.Ph? Is it different from a Pharm.D.? One of the doctors I volunteer with is an R.Ph, not a Pharm.D. Is it still ok to get a LOR from him?

There are so many good answers here, I can't add anything of substance other than the R.Ph. is a professional designation, like an R.N., which indicates licensure based on education rather than just education, whereas the PharmD indicates a professional degree only.

Like most of the posters already indicated, you can be a PharmD and RPh. Previously, when pharmacists only earned BS degrees, they appended RPh after their names since no one signs their name with a BA/BS degree. Now that they have professional doctorates, pharmacists usually append the PharmD after their names and don't include the RPh since it's assumed.

 

[danielguelman]

I am a Pharmacist, living in Argentina.
We have no board for certification purposes.
When I obtained my degree, I certified in the "Pharmacist Board", but it is not mandatory if you do not want to work in a pharmacy or in a hospital.
I have my number, but I am no longer member of that board, since I work in a pharmaceutical company.

My question is: I have to use RPh, PharmD, BA or BS?

Thank you in advance for your prompt answer!
D

 

[pharmaJUST2007]

Hi everybody
i'm new here andi don't know how things work here
i'm a pharamcy student ( i study abroad not in the USA) and i want to switch to PharmD .. concerning me ,it's kind of a confusing choice , i'd like if u can tell me what is the advantages and disadvantage of bieng a PharmD.
thanks alot

 

[Farmercyst]

I am a Pharmacist, living in Argentina.
We have no board for certification purposes.
When I obtained my degree, I certified in the "Pharmacist Board", but it is not mandatory if you do not want to work in a pharmacy or in a hospital.
I have my number, but I am no longer member of that board, since I work in a pharmaceutical company.

My question is: I have to use RPh, PharmD, BA or BS?

Thank you in advance for your prompt answer!
D

I know it's a month old, but for the sake of completion:
What is your degree? PharmD,BA, or BS or neither.
Are you a Registered Pharmacist (Rph)? The answer to these questions should give you some idea.

 

[MountainPharmD]

A month old ****....The first post is from 7-23-2005! Now thats bring something back from the dead!

 

[ffpickle]

40000 views and 10 replies i love it

 

[Farmercyst]

A month old ****....The first post is from 7-23-2005! Now thats bring something back from the dead!

The post I quoted was 1 month. But I know.

Bring out your dead
Bring out your dead.

 

[PearLily]

I am from Italy and I have being told that our 5years Pharmacy degree +9 months internship practice is equal to a PharmD in the US. To work in the US I should tho have a 3 months internship there in a pharmacy. This is what I have been told by a private US college.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Not necessarily true.
There are 140 pharmacists in AZ that DO NOT have a college degree at all. They just took the boards. The BOP's don't allow this anymore, Minnesota was the last to grant the title of Rph without a degree in 1976. Rph just means that you are a registered pharmacist that passed with the qualifications at the time. Pharm.D. is an academic title that is wholly separate from the licensing part. You can have the degree but not be licensed, although it generally implies such because most states have laws against self-identification as a "pharmacist" if you don't have a license. So my name would be written "lord999, Pharm.D., R.Ph."

For historical reference in AZ:
~140 pharmacists do not have a degree
~3 have a preWWII Pharmaceutical Chemist qualification (Ph.C., Ph.B., Ph,M., D.Ph.)
The rest have B.S. Pharm. or Pharm. D.

I wonder if any of those dudes are still practicing/alive

 

[Rouelle]

I wonder if any of those dudes are still practicing/alive

The 3 pre-WWII folks: unlikely. Since they are listed as pre war, let’s just say they were 22 y/o in 1940. So they would have been born in 1918ish. I would assume in the 12 years since this was posted, they would likely have ceased practicing.

Of the pre-‘76 folks, surely a number are still practicing. Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple floaters I’ve worked with who were licensed in the early 1960s.

 

[lord999]

I wonder if any of those dudes are still practicing/alive

The 3 pre-WWII folks: unlikely. Since they are listed as pre war, let’s just say they were 22 y/o in 1940. So they would have been born in 1918ish. I would assume in the 12 years since this was posted, they would likely have ceased practicing.

Of the pre-‘76 folks, surely a number are still practicing. Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple floaters I’ve worked with who were licensed in the early 1960s.

I should have wrote: "at the time I was an intern in 2001", because they were still in practice then. There were certainly more a decade before that.

Prewar:
None in practice anymore and of the three, only one I know is still alive over the HIPAA age (he's living in a place that I visit every time when I come to town), was a Pharmacist Mate 1st class in the Pacific Campaign (enlisted because pharmacists in those days were) during WWII. Very boring quotidian life and retired about the time I licensed. Like many in his cohort, he still genuinely hates the Japanese passionately on both a national and personal level (I remember that he was absolutely delighted when Fukushima happened when I came back from the DoD/DoE survey of the area post-criticality). He hates "Greatest Generation" designations just as much and wishes he was in our generation rather than living his young adult life during the WWII and the repressive 50s.

Off-topic historical note: Also, pharmacists routinely licensed at 18-19 and could license as young as 16 until the postwar (I am serially tied with some others for the youngest PharmD licensed in my state, but I'm far from the youngest ever at 15). In the West, school only went for white people until 12 for farmers, 14-16 for trades bound like pharmacy where you had to be able to do higher math and those going to the normal school (teacher), and 18 was for university study. Universal High school education was not common until the 40s outside of New England and the mid-Atlantic. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill) also had the side effect of anyone who was a pharmacist mate at 2nd class or higher who did not have a state license in my home state qualify for the Boards. While I did not research other states, they probably had similar provisions in effect as well as accepting abbreviated physician training. Many of the non-degree RPhs came from that era.

RPh only: At least five of them are still in practice (late 60s RP). I keep tabs on two of them and am aware of three others.

 

[BidingMyTime]

I am from Italy and I have being told that our 5years Pharmacy degree +9 months internship practice is equal to a PharmD in the US. To work in the US I should tho have a 3 months internship there in a pharmacy. This is what I have been told by a private US college.

It may be "equivalent" to a PharmD, but it isn't a PharmD, so it's not equal to it. You should be able to sit for the FPGEE (pharmacy test), based on your pharmacy education, and get licensed in the US. You would first have to pass the TOEFL (english test.) The amount of internship you would need differs from state to state (I would assume the 3 months is correct for whatever state the private college that you gave you that number is in, but that won't be true for every state.)

 

[rph3664]

I read this courageous man's autobiography a few years ago. Prior to contracting Hansen's Disease, he was a pharmacist, and in his case, he had to wait a few months in between getting his degree, which was then 2 years, and starting to practice, because in Texas, you had to be 21 to practice pharmacy, or medicine for that matter.

Sidney Maurice Levyson (1899 - 1967) - Find A Grave Memorial

The Jew in the American Leper Colony

He said more than once that getting sick was really the best thing that could have happened to him, because he really didn't enjoy being a small-town druggist and he didn't realize it until years later.

p.s. That cure mentioned in his obituary was not dapsone. It was another sulfone derivative called Promin which came out in the mid 1940s, and was an IV injection given 6 days a week for several months. But it actually worked, and was worth it to the people who had not previously had anything that worked better than placebo.