Changing the Image of Pharmacists

[TotalKayOs]

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i personally think that the students should still be allowed to chose between pharm.d. and B.S.pharm. i think that making the pharm.d. required takes away from the profession. if some one want to work retail they should be allowed to get the B.S. if one wanted to go into acedemia or clinical postion then a pharm.d. would be required. i hear it all the time now in school all the first years saying they just want to be called doctor. these are the people that ruin our profession and and make people think less of us.

 

[insipid1979]

i hear it all the time now in school all the first years saying they just want to be called doctor.

So they are going to introduce themselves as "Doctor so and so" and then when someone asks where they work they are going to say Walgreens? 😕

 

[VCU07]

i personally think that the students should still be allowed to chose between pharm.d. and B.S.pharm. i think that making the pharm.d. required takes away from the profession. if some one want to work retail they should be allowed to get the B.S. if one wanted to go into acedemia or clinical postion then a pharm.d. would be required. i hear it all the time now in school all the first years saying they just want to be called doctor. these are the people that ruin our profession and and make people think less of us.

I don't quite understand how requiring a PharmD takes away from our profession. If we are going to expand our scope of practice and do more than what the public think we do, then we have to have the education to back it up. It is never a bad thing to get a better education. In addition to this, only having a BS will back up other professions argument that we don't have the education to do what we do. It is really too bad that pharmacy students think like this.

 

[twester]

Get a grip...going to school for an extra year post Bachelors degree is not a true doctorate degree. A Masters degree is a higher degree than a PharmD. PharmD students do not even have to write a thesis. MDs must complete residencies, working 80 hours or more per week and PhDs have to do years of research and then complete a dissertation. Let's be real...a PharmD degree may not be easy to obtain like other bachelor-level science degrees, but it is NOT a Doctoral level of education. It is not even a Masters level of education. Sorry, but that is the truth. If you want to obtain that level of education then I suggest you go back to school.

Troll! Be gone!

 

[DrugDealer]

I am not sure if you have started pharmacy school yet but there is a misperception that pharmacy deals with a lot of chemistry. That is simply wrong.

Except for the 4 semesters of medicinal chemistry. 5 semesters, if you count my elective.

And the 2 required semester of pharmaceutics and kinetics--that's a natural extension of the the 8 hours of p-chem I had in undergrad. And the 2 required semesters of biochem and understanding enzyme active sites, how to make a fatty acid susceptible to nucleophilic attack, the Nernst equation, etc.

 

[ProZackMI]

Get a grip...going to school for an extra year post Bachelors degree is not a true doctorate degree. A Masters degree is a higher degree than a PharmD. PharmD students do not even have to write a thesis. MDs must complete residencies, working 80 hours or more per week and PhDs have to do years of research and then complete a dissertation. Let's be real...a PharmD degree may not be easy to obtain like other bachelor-level science degrees, but it is NOT a Doctoral level of education. It is not even a Masters level of education. Sorry, but that is the truth. If you want to obtain that level of education then I suggest you go back to school.

What a *****! I'm an MD and JD, and I think pharmacists, both commerical and clinical, are an integral component to the healthcare team. I don't look down on pharmacists, even those with BS degrees. You guys are more informed than most MDs on drug info. I have nothing but respect for pharmacists.

Also, a PharmD most certainly is a professional DOCTORATE just like an MD, DO, DVM, JD, DDS, OD, etc. My girlfriend has a BS in bio/biochem, PharmD, and MPH. She also did a 2 year post PharmD residency at UMich. There are PharmDs out there who've been in school, including residency, longer than some FPs and GPs out there.

However, an MD, PharmD, JD, etc., are not PhDs (the true academic doctorates). PharmDs, are, however doctors just like the other health professions that award such degrees.

 

[ProZackMI]

So they are going to introduce themselves as "Doctor so and so" and then when someone asks where they work they are going to say Walgreens? 😕

Hey, I was at Wal-mart today and walked by the "vision center" and saw on the sign that walk-in appointments with Dr. Sandra Robinson, O.D., Doctor of Optometry, were available. Sandra Robinson, O.D., was an employee of Wal-mart just like Gus, the retired greeter guy.

If an optometrist can use the Doctor title while working in retail, why shoudln't a PharmD?

 

[TotalKayOs]

how many actively practicing pharmacist are there in the US now? and MD/DO's? just curious.

 

[insipid1979]

how many actively practicing pharmacist are there in the US now? and MD/DO's? just curious.

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/factbook.htm

Gives a lot of information for up to 2000 for various health professions.

MDs = 737,500 in 2000
DOs = 45,000 in 2000
Pharmacists = 196,100

I am wondering why you asked that?

 

[ndearwater]

Hey, I was at Wal-mart today and walked by the "vision center" and saw on the sign that walk-in appointments with Dr. Sandra Robinson, O.D., Doctor of Optometry, were available. Sandra Robinson, O.D., was an employee of Wal-mart just like Gus, the retired greeter guy.

If an optometrist can use the Doctor title while working in retail, why shoudln't a PharmD?

I think the majority of practicing pharmacists hold a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy; the Pharm.D. as a requirement is relatively new. I think that in the future, as having a doctorate becomes the rule and not the exception, referencing pharmacists as "Doctor" may become more common.

 

[patmcd]

I think the majority of practicing pharmacists hold a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy; the Pharm.D. as a requirement is relatively new. I think that in the future, as having a doctorate becomes the rule and not the exception, referencing pharmacists as "Doctor" may become more common.

Theres the current problem people have with calling a pharmacist a doctor. Traditionally pharmacists weren't doctors, and that perception will take a while to change. But with the huge growth of pharmd programs and many pharmacists reaching retirement, hopefully that perception will change.

 

[goodb29]

So far I have seen alot of physicians (MD/DOs) that are very encouraging to the increasing clinical role of pharmacists in practice, but there seems to be a significant amount of resistance in some parts of the country. In the Northeast for instance. Any physicians have thoughts on this? Any thoughts as to how to "prove our worth"? Also, how can we show physicians that we can help improve pharmacotherapeutic outcomes for patients in a community setting by providing preventative care services such as BP/BG monitoring, cholesterol screening, medication monitoring etc?

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I think the majority of practicing pharmacists hold a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy; the Pharm.D. as a requirement is relatively new. I think that in the future, as having a doctorate becomes the rule and not the exception, referencing pharmacists as "Doctor" may become more common.

I think it depends on the region and when the local pharmacy schools converted to "PharmD only". Most of the pharmacists in my area went to UKentucky, and UK has been doing the PharmD for a while, so there are a lot of PharmD's.

 

[TotalKayOs]

i was just curious. i didn't realize there were so many more MD/DO in the country then there are pharmacists. i know it probably sounds uneducated but i always thought there were more r.ph. then md/do's. i feel that here in boston anyway, on rotations all the intern an residents i have worked with have been very receptive to pharm.d. students. even the md's that went to harvard med, that i thought would be all full of themselves have been really cool.

 

[goodb29]

I think that younger docs and residents are more receptive to pharmacists because alot of pharmacy/medical schools have them taking some of the same classes...older docs are usually not as receptive, from my experiences...