The Pharmacy Council of India Registrar and Secretary Archana Mudgal has urged Pharm.D students to approach the Council without inhibitions if they have complaints about the way their college is imparting the programme.
Though the colleges are inspected every year – since launch of the six-year pharmacy doctoral programme in 2008 – it would be of help if students share their experience. “We will look into the issue…,” she said, adding the student may prefer not to mention his/her name in the complaint.
Dr. Mudgal was replying to a query pertaining to quality of education in the institutions, after her speech on ‘Pharm.D education in India – inception and the need’ at a plenary session of the 66{+t}{+h}Indian Pharmaceutical Congress here on Saturday that scores of students attended.
After the session, many of the students went up to her and complained about the way the course is imparted and the approach of doctors towards them. The students, when asked, however, did not disclose the name of their institution.
Earlier, in her presentation Dr. Mudgal said there is “a market for all Pharm.D graduates” particularly in the backdrop of a shift from communicable to lifestyle diseases in the country and with the ageing population set to increase.
The UGC had included Pharm.D as post-graduate course in the schedule of degrees, she said. The Pharmacy Council has also written to the Central and State governments asking them to amend recruitment rules to recognise the course for the post of pharmacists. It also wanted Pharm.D students to be considered for fellowship, something on which she said a positive response could be expected in two months.
Doctors will gradually “accept us”, she said, pointing out that the situation will change if the students offer support instead of making the doctors feel that they are taking their space. The students, Dr. Mudgal underscored, need to develop soft skills to interact with patients.
Insurance companies are pushing hospitals to appoint pharmacists and also recruiting them for their requirements. To underscore the role of pharmacists, she referred to a WHO report of 2011 that said doctors in developing countries spend less than 60 seconds in prescribing medicines and briefing regimen to patients. The top three contributors to errors are surgery (wrong site/wrong patient accounting for 20 per cent; medication error (16 per cent) and medical error (nearly 15 per cent).
Pharm.D, according to the Council, can be pursued after 10+2 (science academic stream) or after D.Pharm course and comprises five years academic study and one year internship or residency. In the Pharm.D (Post Baccalaureate) course, B.Pharm graduates are admitted as lateral entry candidate to the fourth year of the programme.
“There is ‘a market for all Pharm.D graduates’, particularly in the backdrop of a shift from communicable to lifestyle diseases in the country”
