Correct me on this, someone, but it's hard to see why the education requirement is so stringent if all you're doing is dispensing drugs, as opposed to compounding them from scratch. It would be like needing a degree in biology to count out eight chicken nuggets and put them in a box.
Once again government is raising the price of health care.
I have a cuz in pharm school and she is very bright. The study load is intense.
I think it's more than counting pills. I believe they too are responsible that whatever perscriptions you are on do not mix badly together. Patients can sue their doctor and their pharmacist!
>>>Correct me on this, someone, but it's hard to see why the education requirement is so stringent if all you're doing is dispensing drugs, as opposed to compounding them from scratch. It would be like needing a degree in biology to count out eight chicken nuggets and put them in a box.<<<
...or four years of biology, anatomy, physiology, etc., to get a chiropractric degree so you can pop backs and necks for a living.
My brother was a pharmacist (now is deceased). He had his own store, but before he died, he sold the building, but not the business, as it had dwindled due to the local hospital closing. He lived in a small town.
He often told of how many prescriptions people were taking and the dangers of drug interactions. It was not unusual for him to call a physician and discuss the prescription relative to other drugs. Most often the physician would be appreciative of the reminders of drug interaction, but occasionally a doctor would huff and puff and insist that the prescription be filled exactly as ordered (despite adverse possible outcomes). So pharmacists are dealing with life and death drugs, and sometimes inflated egos with physicians, plus a growing elderly population which needs to be educated in how to take the drugs.
My wife is a pharmacist, and sees problems down the road with so many schools going to the PharmD degree that requires six years of study. Who with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree is going to want to work at the corner drugstore? She feels that schools should still offer a bachelor of Pharmacy degree as well as the PharmD. She is 48 and works part-time (due to our having young kids) as a hospital pharmacist ...and is always getting letters and phone calls from headhunters looking for pharmacists.
Finally, as my daughter, who is a Pharm.D. (Doctor in pharmacy) has pointed out to me (a physician), that she has on numerous occasions prevented a serious problem or even potentially a fatality by recognizing an error in the prescription or order for medication by the physician. Many physicians are grateful when she calls and points this out, but many others with fragile egos wind up cursing her out for challenging their judgement.
When you have to put up with this type of BS, you can see why pharmacists deserve the salaries they get.
Carolyn
Some of those chemicals and drugs are deadly. The pharmacist has to know his stuff.