Must be PharmD to work in the USA?

[Palumbo]

My career goal is pharmacy. i am two years into college and will need one more semester to finish pre pharmacy.

I currently live in California. I got accepted to a few Universities that provide the PharmD program, but am currently hesistant about going, mainly about price.

I am thinking about going abroad to the Philippines to get my degree in Pharmacy. Although, it is not considered a PharmD degree.

I was talking to my mom today, who is a pharmacist, and she spoke to a graduate student and found out that in order to be a licensed pharmacist in the US and A, you MUST have a PharmD degree. Apparently this is new news?

This does not sit will with my plan. My question is, what are the qualifications in order to work in, for instance, California, while only holding a pharmacy degree from another country?

PS: i did some searching, but i didn't get any straight up answers. Hey, i tried =p.

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[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

My career goal is pharmacy. i am two years into college and will need one more semester to finish pre pharmacy.

I currently live in California. I got accepted to a few Universities that provide the PharmD program, but am currently hesistant about going, mainly about price.

I am thinking about going abroad to the Philippines to get my degree in Pharmacy. Although, it is not considered a PharmD degree.

I was talking to my mom today, who is a pharmacist, and she spoke to a graduate student and found out that in order to be a licensed pharmacist in the US and A, you MUST have a PharmD degree. Apparently this is new news?

This is new news for me too..and i don't think that it is accurate..because many foreign pharmacists get accredited with their oversea diploma..and i am not sur about it but i think that the PharmD ( the appelation) is not really common in the world...so as long as you have the equivalent you should be able to get accredited too..

The question now is to find if the one in Philippines in considered comparable to the PharmD and could be accredited....
my advise is to got directly to the web site that get foreign pharmacy degree accredited and ask them about it....don't forget the hours you will have to put toward this accreditation and the extra exams..and that there is not warranty as the rules change depend on the demand..now they are giving accreditation to help with shortage..by the time you graduation is the shortage is less critical they might be less generous and decide that the inside production is enough...

check in the international forum..they will be more helpful there...more info on the process..

I guess that you have look up all your options (loans, scholarships)..before deciding to go oversea..b/c if you can stay in the motherland STAY..the process of accreditation is no fun/easy game!!!

 

[BiOGoly]

You certainly do not HAVE to possess a PharmD to be licensed in the US, but each state has it's own requirements for foreign degree applicants. I believe in most states you must complete several hundred hours of internship and then pass an examination before you can be licensed...and the biggy is you must be currently licensed as a pharmacist in your home country. Check out the Pharmacy board web site for California. Honestly, I'd just take out the loans and get my PharmD...what you may save finacially in the Philippines you may pay for later in headaches...

 

[letjin]

You do not have to have a PharmD to be a pharmacist in US. You can graduate a foreign pharmacy school and go through extra steps and become a pharmacist.

One thing you should be concerned about is the length of the foreign pharmacy school's curriculum. If it is a 4-year program, then you won't be eligable for the exam that gives license to foreign pharmacists. It has to be 5 year or more....
If you want to find more about it do a google search with terms 'FPGEC' and 'FPGEE'. This is about as much as I know.

link: http://www.nabp.net/index.asp?target=/ppad/fpgecSearch.asp&menutype=fpgec

 

[SomeGuy]

You do not have to have a PharmD to be a pharmacist in US. You can graduate a foreign pharmacy school and go through extra steps and become a pharmacist.

One thing you should be concerned about is the length of the foreign pharmacy school's curriculum. If it is a 4-year program, then you won't be eligable for the exam that gives license to foreign pharmacists. It has to be 5 year or more....
If you want to find more about it do a google search with terms 'FPGEC' and 'FPGEE'. This is about as much as I know.

link: http://www.nabp.net/index.asp?target=/ppad/fpgecSearch.asp&menutype=fpgec

Just to clarify, the program must be >=5 years INCLUDING the required pre-professional years, so a 1+4 or 2+3 program is acceptable.

The only state that I've come across that seems to actually have changed their licensing laws to require the PharmD is NY. Which is mighty unfortunate for me.

 

[Palumbo]

thanks for your input fellas

one more question. does anyone know the difference in curriculum between PharmD and foreign pharmacy programs?

 

[SomeGuy]

uhhhh.... you used the word "foreign" as if it was specific rather than general...

 

[Palumbo]

i was actually being specific about the PharmD program. What does the PharmD program have that a non PharmD program would not have?

 

[Requiem]

i was actually being specific about the PharmD program. What does the PharmD program have that a non PharmD program would not have?

It depends what country you're talking about man, there's a lot of non pharmd programs out there.

Canada is a 1+4 program, with a minimum 1 year pre-reqs and 4 year pharmacy school. Most people do more than 1 year pre reqs, so the average graduating age is probably similar between us/canada.

United States has an entire year of 'clerkships', whereas in Canada we have a summer rotation after each year (this is not the same at every school), for about a month each, followed by in 4th year a semester (half a year) is dedicated to clinical rotations.

Honestly, the only difference I can pick up on is another semester of clerkships. We do 7 courses a semester, which is a huge courseload, and graduate with the same amount of pharmacy courses as PharmD programs. To get a pharmd in canada requires two more years of study, and is more intensive. I think you specialize a lot more, compared to a US PharmD. This is simply because you'd end up with a minimum of 7 years, opposed to 6 in the states.

Edit**: At MUN (where I'm attending) in the summer of P1 we do a community rotation, P2 is a hospital rotation and P3 is a community rotation. P4 is the specialized clinical rotations i.e psychiatry. It ends up being 6 months of rotations. Plus 12 weeks @ 35 hr/week of retail experience outside the rotations. You end up with a fair amount of experience.

 

[bananaface]

Moving to the Licensure and Exams subforum as this is a question about US licensure requirements.

- Anna

 

[childofglory]

hi palumbo
personally i think you probably should find some aid and go ahead and study in the us rather than trying to get accredited later. i'm thru with studying pharmacy in nigeria and i'll really like to get accredited in the us but i can tell u right noe that sifting thru the reqirements for accrediatation is no joke. apparently completing the fpgee does not guarantee a license and i still have to figure out which state it is i want to be accredited in and find out their extra requirements as per internship hours and stuff like that. it is qiute a headache and i will really appreciate it if some clear steps to licensing valid in all the states existed. anyway, consider your options carefully.

 

[tatoflake]

Hi Palumbo,

It is my understanding that in order to take the NAPLEX Exam you must have a Pharm.D. degree from a US accredited pharmacy program. Read the NABP requirements very carefully. In my work, I get a lot of calls from people who have pharmacy degrees from foreign institutions and are very frustrated with the diffuculty in fulfilling the gap between their foreign education and the requirements in the US. It is not easy, there are not many programs available to fill that educational gap and competition to get in is fierce.

Best of luck!