American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

http://www.distance.wsu.edu/degrees/doctor_of_pharmacy.asp

External Doctor of Pharmacy


Tuition waivers are now available for non-resident students.

The External Pharmacy Degree (Pharm.D.) Program was developed by Washington State University (WSU) and the University of Washington (UW) to help licensed pharmacists keep pace with changes in the field, update their skills, gain a greater variety of hands-on clinical experience, compete for better career positions, and enhance and expand their practice to meet consumer needs. Professional competencies acquired by graduates of the program will be equivalent to those demonstrated by Pharm.D. graduates in the traditional entry-level programs on the UW and WSU campuses. The External Pharm.D. is under the academic direction of UW and WSU. Permanent pharmacy faculty members from both institutions will serve as instructors.

National pharmacy organizations have reached a consensus on the need for a change in pharmacy education. They have endorsed the Doctor of Pharmacy as the sole degree to enter the practice of pharmacy, and it will soon be the only degree accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (the national pharmacy accrediting agency). The College of Pharmacy at Washington State University and the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington began offering the Pharm.D. as the sole professional degree in autumn 1995. The bachelor degree program will continue until students who entered the program prior to autumn 1995 graduate.

 

Another post about this program: Divisions among doctorates.

 

IIRC, there is also a DL doctorate offered by Bodine School of Medicine (located in Possum Trot, TN) in the field of brain surgery. The contact person is Jethro Bodine, MD, Ph.D., PA.

 

Pharm D Programs

The Doctor of Pharmacy programs have been around as entery level programs for some time. Duquesne University in Pittsburg was on the leading edge in the early 90's to abandon the BS in Pharmacy program. All students entering in Pharmacy had only two choices... enter the 6 year PharmD program or go somewhere else. In oder to serve the needs of it's alumni, Duquesne started offering the program via DL modes with Satellite hookups and video tape technology.

Since then many Schools of Pharmacy have adopted the PharmD as the only option.

Regards,

Dick

 

Here's three more...

In addition to the schools above:

University of Montana (ASPE endorsed)
University of Colorado
University of NC-Chapel Hill (NC residents only)



A footnote:

I believe the first college to offer external degrees (doctorate) in Pharmacy was Purdue in the mid-80's, but was discontinued.

 

Re: Re: American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

Funny

On a more serious not the D.Pharm is part of the unfortunate progression in terms of inflating degrees (eg J.D). As far as I know in Canada you still get a Bachelors (just as you do with law). The D.Pharm is not a real doctorate any more than the J.D. it is rather a first professional degree (as the M.Div is for ministry).

Just for general interest here is the US Dept of Ed. site with the National Science Foundation degrees equivalent to Ph.D.

http://www.ed.gov/NLE/USNEI/us/research-doctorate.html

And the site with the not equivalents:

http://www.ed.gov/NLE/USNEI/us/professional-studies.html

Nonetheless thanks to the original poster for good information which may be of benefit to some.

North

 

Re: Re: American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

I was re-reading an old thread about the PharmD issue. This link has some good history about the PharmD and then Russell's remark cracked me up. Poor old Jethro greatly desired a good DL medical program. He probably could have swung the supervision phase through granny. Maybe Russell could swing some sort of foreign accreditation for Jethro's school. The remote country of Bungawanga is interested in generating income by bestowing prestigious accreditation on worthy schools. Good news is that the accreditation review can be done by distance technology.

Seriously though, KKA notes that tuition waivers are available for non resident students at WSU pursuing PharmD.

North

 

Re: Re: Re: American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

I've been out of town for the past few days, so I apologize for not responding sooner. Actually, North, I have been in dialogue with the Minister of Education in Bungawanga regarding Bodine School of Medicine. The relationship is almost solidified, with "accreditation" due sometime in March.

Bodine School of Medicine will award all degrees, but each person who pays the initial accreditation fee will receive a beautiful red glossy sticker to place on their diploma.

 

It generally takes about 220 semester credit hours to complete the PharmD degree. It required 160 hours to get an accredited BS in pharmacy (what is the average required for a BS 120-130)? I appreciate the information that Mr. North gave for full-time etc. But it is hard to compare degree programs that are professional vs. academic. Or PhD vs First Professional.

Then there is the old argument experiential rotations take 4 times longer than 1 hour of academic credit. 3 hours weekly for a semester gives one hour of laboratory credit. Granted there are no thesis with most professional degrees. But, there are very few Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Physics, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutics , Dispensing Labs, Sterile Products, That go into the PhD in a lot of degree programs. I spent most Tuesdays, and Thursdays in college doing laboratory work while most "3 hour class work" degrees only went M-W-F.

Although I do question the logic of the PharmD, I also understand the profession, and the degree. I also understand why an MDiv student would want to say a 90 credit hour degree should be equivalent to a 90 hour PhD. I heard several people I graduated with argue we did the same number of credit hours as the people getting a masters degree.

I then had a friend from Southeastern Oklahoma give the best advice on degree comparisons. "Them's the grits".

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

Each school, each degree program has its test course, its ball-breaker (if I may be so crude ). I've been told that in the UMass Pre-Med program that course was Organic Chemistry. If you can't ace "organic" then you aren't going to medical school . . .
I'm assuming that at the Bodine School of Medicine, the test course is "Cipherin'"
Jack

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: American Accredited DL "Doctor" Degree

Actually, Jack, the critical course at BSOM is indeed "organic chemistry."

You see, the anesthetic used by BSOM is granny's home brewed elixer--stored in those gallon sized brown vials to ensure maximum shelf life. Now if one is to graduate from BSOM, one must ace the course in "organic chemistry," i.e., one must learn the process by which the brew, errr, anesthetic is made.

 

Sounds like Pharmacy is taking an interesting turn (clincal rotations, etc).

America is interesting. Indeed an MDiv could become a PhD with a little tweaking (not many Phd programs in the US require knowledge of other languages). However, I don't know that the rush to make everyone a *dr* in the US is necessarily good. It is very difficult as you point out to compare degrees. Purpose has a lot to do with it. There is a great deal of variation in terms of credits:

eg MS 36 hrs + PhD (Touro Health Sc) 40 = 76 graduate hrs

MA (Counseling) 48 hrs + PhD 60 = 98 graduate hours

Someone with an MDiv + DMin = around 123 or more graduate hours. A ThD even more.

Regardless of whether your PharmD is considered a real doctorate or just a first professional degree you can laugh all the way to the bank in your Audi sports car.

North