PharmD's are not doctors!

REPLY:
Pharmacists play a major role in patient's medication counseling , interactions, and understanding of what a patient is taking...for this clueless person who lacks the knowledge: clinical pharmacists work hand to hand in hospitals with healthcare teams to dose your IV's , antibiotics, anticoagulation medications that could be dangerous if not appropriately dosed! ... While you are knocked out waiting for your butt to be wiped ...think about who accelerates your recovery using the right medications and doses! The therapeutic range is decided by pharmacists and monitored by them while u sit there and complain! ( pharmd is a doctorate degree in that profession) ...this is in the states .....
Overseas: pharmacists are the first choice for people who need help medically and they get referred to physicians if the condition requires it....and people get helped with medications and diagnosis with accuracy that prevent over 80% of hospitalization .....
That being said ...this person should do further studies ....and still he would be considered ignorant

 

This is hilarious...

 

Re: PharmD's are doctors!

I have been so silent all this time to just see whr the talks last..
But yes, now u ol have landed to false preasumptions, barking over without any ethical knowledge of the market.
I have finished my degree a year back,,m a doctor providing treatment to patients in a govt hospital,INDIA nw receiving 0.9lac/month.
Due to some reasons, i had to come back from USA...thr it was 62 USD/hour....

ONE IDIOT, I SAW HAS WRITTEN """PILL PUSHER"""!!!! HAHAAAAA
C'MON...I think this has literally pushed pill in your rectum...

 

It is so sad to read all of these mean posts. The world would be a better place without all this hatred. We all live and die. No degree, doctorate or otherwise, is worth any of the terrible words you've posted in the end.

 

This is a pretty funny thread.
Anyway, all you monkeys can continue to smack your fingers on your keyboards all you want. In the end all that matters is that a person enters a profession, likes what they do for a living, provides for their family, puts cash in their pocket, affords the things they need, and does the things they want to do. If one of those things you like to do is bang your fingers on the keyboard and have people refer to you with certain titles, then more power to you. Unfortunately, just doing that won't get money in your pocket like actually having a professional job.

 

Yup and you’re still not a doctor…

 

Our hospital is PharmD only ( No BS Pharms). We have to answer the phone " thank you for calling the pharmacy dept, this is Dr Jones, how may I help you". This lets the caller know that they are speaking with a clinical pharmacist.
The new healthcare law is kicking in, this will allow us to charge for our cognitive services... Interesting times we are having in our field. Our computers already assign dollar amount per time spent on consultations... as to answer the ultimate question: No we are not physicians. We are pharmacists and we are doctoral. We are consultants and we are part of a very effective team. Medical science half life is 5 years; pharmaceutical science is 2 years. Things change rapidly, and my job description changes every year. At this point, I am more of a clinical analyst. I trouble shoot a patients drug regimen and recommend (and at times initiate) therapeutic changes.

 

Really? What if you are a RPh? PharmD was not mandated until the early 90’s, by guess who…the AACP…um no conflict of interest there…let’s create an unnecessary doctoral degree so we can demand higher salaries. The PharmD was not born out of necessity it was born out of greed for more money. There are plenty of great pharmacists out there who graduated from top tier programs prior to the institution of the PharmD degree….what’s the direction at your hospital for when they answer the phone…since they are not ‘doctors’…

 

you are all ignorant and know nothing that you are talking about. Please go try to get a PharmD degree, then tell me it's a joke.

 

I have one...it is a joke.

 

Who cares honestly, its one big medical system that depends on each other in order to function. Its a balance of power between each branch of medicine. PharmD's are the references to many doctors now and its always the PharmD students who advise the residents of treatment plans. Pharmacy isnt just pill pushing anymore, its double checking your MD's and other health related illnesses to make sure everything the MD's prescribe is effective and most of all safe.

 

Get your facts straight! The PharmD degree existed long before the 90's. Initially the PharmD degree was reserved for those holding a BS Pharmacy degree to gain additional clinical education. I personally have a BS in Biology and Pharmacy, plus a PharmD degree and 2 years of residency training. This was obtained over a total of 11 years. I have worked in academic and hospital settings. I could care less if someone calls me "Doctor" and most of the time it's the physicians I work with that refer to me with that title. Obvioulsy, many of you posting on this thread have no clue about pharmacy education. All PharmDs are not the same and many of us earned the degree as a graduate level degree following the BS Pharmacy degree.

 

You can get a doctorate in Nursing. Srsly?

 

Never said it didn't exist before the 90's I said that was when it was mandated. In the 70's and 80's most programs were not PharmD. Guess you can count by fives but reading comprehension is not your thing. 11 years to earn a PharmD? What a waste of time and money that was!

 

We have a clue…it is the embarrassing degree that Asian, Middle Eastern, and Indian kids get that shames their families since they couldn’t get into medical school or god forbid dental school…seriously how many African American, Caucasian, or Hispanic pharmacist have you seen recently, especially under 40 years old? I haven’t seen many and I work half the country dealing with both retail and academic pharmacists, and attend every national and regional pharmacy conference…at least 8 or so a year at a minimum. Ask ANY of them why they chose to ‘become’ a pharmacist and 90% or better will say...”because I didn’t get into medical school”…sorry but it’s the truth.

Lastly if you really wanted to be a ‘scientist’ working in medicine and drugs why not get a real PhD. in biochem or something like that? Very few pharmacists are developing drugs from the bench…it’s your PhD. biologists, biochemists, chemists, etc…NOT PharmD’s…again sorry but those are the facts. So have fun with your grossly inflated and somewhat obsolete degree…and no Obamacare is not going to give Pharmacists more clout or patient care despite what you may read in your PharmD trade journals and other outlets that are PR’d to death by the APhA ofnthe “important role of the pharmacist in Obamacare”…not until we have real tort reform and we know that’s not changing anytime soon.

 

I can't believe this thread has been going on for years. LOL.

I know a lot of PharmDs .. and they are nice people. I used to teach a bunch of PharmDs and they are no different from any other group .. some are brilliant .. some are dolts.

Granted, I'll agree that there is really not much difference in the curriculum between the old B.S in Pharmacy and the PharmD .. a few more rotations, and thus more experience coming out of the gate. I also agree, the PharmD designation was a political creation from the APhA to boost salaries and prestige ... but ... is that really any different from the AMA, or any other group working to help its members??

I mean lets face it .... you don't learn your job in school. You learn it on the job. Experience trumps education any day of the week. There are B.S. Pharmacists who blow PharmDs out of the water ..... simply because they've been around a lot longer and have more experience.

As for MSL's ... I would think that interpersonal and communication skills are tops. Anyone can read up and become an expert on the science.

 

You haven't met my boss.

 

Pharmacist's are highly educated. It is true that their skills are under-utilized. A Pharm.D degree is not easy to obtain (as is an MD). Pharm.D's do have a wonderful base not only in medications, but therapeutics. If they didn't have these skills they would not be able to integrate and truly advise patient's on proper medication therapy. I have been a Pharm.D for 27 years. I've worked in the IHS, VA system, as well as owning my own private clinical practice (which is my current position). I'm board certified in clinical pharmacy as well as certified in diabetes education. The MD's and NP's that I work with all have an abundance of respect for me as I do them. Once we all got a little older, we started working together and what a team we all made. It's true that 25% of pharmacists work in community pharmacies. Independent community pharmacies fill about 40% of all prescriptions in 2012. Those folks have a much deeper understanding of their patients than the big box pharmacies. That leaves 75% of us who do direct patient care as clinical pharmacists in hospitals, LTC, ambulatory settings as well as underprivilaged areas where pharmacist's can prescribe and provide much needed help. You see, it's all about the whole picture, not just the sliver everyone's been talking about here. I never asked to be called Dr. but everyone insists on calling me Dr.. Funny how that works out.

 

Total bullcrap. Your numbers are way off! Most pharmacists in the US are retail based. No one calls you doctor. I've worked in hospital pharmacy since the 80's and "PharmD's" coming out now are idiots and are all text book. When a real issues happens they are lost. I would guess that less than 2% of PharmD's are addressed as 'doctor'.

 

If you look at the raw numbers there are about 70,000 pharmacies in the U.S.. About 30,000 are chain based (Walgreens etc..). That means the remaining types of practice are private pharmacies, hospitals, clinics as well as professors, research, teaching and consultants. The majority of older pharmacists do not work in chain pharmacies (we're smarter than that). Your comment about newly graduated pharmacists make me chuckle. Of course new graduates are going to trip all over themselves, but they're not living in a vacuum; they do learn as they age. The majority of pharmacist's in the U.S. are not Pharm.D's. It will take a a generation for that to change. If you don't want to call them doctor, that's ok with me!

With respect to the quality of education, a pharmacist is not a physican! On the other hand, they're not without a good education. As with any profession, you must change and grow or face extinction. The truth of the matter is, there may not be pharmacist's in 20 years. If that's the case, folks will go into medicine or become a NP or PA etc. As for the moment, that's where things stand. Like it or not pharmacist's are making decisons right now. If society agrees with you, they'll be gone. As for me and my generation, we've done a lot for society. I'll retire satisfied.