I’ll illustrate a couple examples that will hopefully help to clear up some misconceptions about the pharmacy profession.
In the US, the pharmacy curriculum has become clinically-oriented, hence the degree is now a clinical degree and those who successfully complete the program are called PharmD, or Doctor of Pharmacy. The RPh designation means that the inidividual, whether BS or PharmD, has passed the Pharmacy Board Examination in their state and is thus licensed to practice pharmacy in that state. Yes, we have the board exam to pass, and also a separate exam on state and federal pharmacy law. RPh=Registered Pharmacist, and it is not a degree!
Ph.D.’s are also called Doctor, but everyone knows this is not referring to a medical doctor…it is a research degree, as opposed to a clinical degree like MD, DO or PharmD.
Pharmacists do prescribe in certain capacities, e.g., in VA hospitals; in coumadin clinics, where they may be limited to prescribing coumadin and lovenox, and in hospital settings there is often a collaborative agreement made between a pharmacist and a specific doctor(s) to enable the pharmacist to discontinue certain medication orders written by the doc when necessary, or to initiate certain drug therapies.
As far as pharmacists making diagnoses? We are trained to be the drug experts; medical docs are the diagnosis experts. We are trained to recognize and suggest drug therapy for over the counter issues, and we are trained to recognize when the patient should be referred to a doc, urgent care or emergency treatment facility.
One way in which community (retail) pharmacy is unique is that the pharmacist is the most accessible health professional.
A few more facts:
Pharmacists study pharmaceutics…the science and engineering behind all the various dosage forms out there, and how different dosage forms are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and eliminated in the body. This latter is called pharmacokinetics.
In our training we learn about the same disease states that the docs do, the symptoms, the diagnoses, the labs, the procedures…but our focus is on the judicious selection of the appropriate and rational drug therapy, derived from evidence-based medicine guidelines.
Whether people agree with the PharmD pharmacist being called doctor or not, is irrelevant…fact of the matter is, just as the surgeons of old performed surgery without the benefit of anesthesia, used blood letting, etc., the pharmacy profession has similarly evolved along its trajectory into patient care…pharmacists can immunize in most states, for example…in the end, the advancement of pharmacy and the pharmacist becoming an integral member of the healthcare team is all in the benefit of the patient.
I thought it was very helpful. Media tend to bend the truths at times.
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