Guest post_Armed With A Degree But Nowhere To Work: The Unfortunate Case Of India’s Clinical Pharmacists
We present here a guest post by Dr. Ankit Gaur, Clinical Pharmacist intern at Jaypee Hospital, New Delhi.
Disclaimer: The article is reproduced from the source with the permission of the author and the entire copyright are vested with the author and the publisher. It is published on this blog, just for the information of the readers and Pharma Literati does not hold any right over this.
Article:
Suppose you study for six-seven years of your
life, spend a fortune and face lots of hardship in finishing a course. After
its completion, you try to get a government job as a professional who has the
right qualification, but you can’t because the job you want does not exist. All
your effort goes to waste.
This is what’s happening to
students who have done the Pharm. D (Doctor of Pharmacy) course. This
course was introduced in 2008 by Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). It is a
Pre-PhD post-graduate doctoral programme similar to Doctor of Medicine
(MD) for doctors and Doctor of Dental Sciences (DDS) for dentists. This course
is divided into two programmes. First is the Pharm. D (Regular) course which
has a duration of six years for
students taking admission after completing their 10+2 or D. Pharm (Diploma of
Pharmacy). Another programme is known as Pharm. D (Post Baccalaureate) which
has a duration of three years. It is for those students who have graduated in
B. Pharm (Bachelor of Pharmacy) which is a four years course. So, a pharmacy
student would spend seven pivotal years of their life in getting the two
degrees.
Why was this course introduced?
1. Well, India is a big country, with a large population, old
and poor infrastructure, facing major healthcare-related issues especially when
it comes to safe and rationale drug (medicine) use by common people as well as
by healthcare professionals. People nowadays suffer from multiple diseases and
seek treatments from multiple sources. This puts their health in even more
danger.
2. The doctors, on the other hand, have to treat these
patients, prescribe them medicines. More often than not, the information
related to these medicines is provided to the doctors by medical
representatives of multinational companies who want to increase their sales.
This is risky because the information provided by these medical representatives
might not be authentic or fact-based, because everyone claims that their
medicines are safer and cheaper to use.
3. The
doctors are very busy all the time because of a large number of patients that
they have to treat. Due to this, they don’t have time to extensively counsel
the patients regarding their ailments. As a result, patients don’t understand
the importance of taking medicines on time and sticking to the medical advice
of the doctor, and this again leads to the deterioration of their health.
4. So
to combat these issues, it was decided that there is a need of a healthcare
professional who can provide evidence-based information to the doctors by
participating in ward rounds and ensure the best treatment is received by the
patients, counselling the patients about their disease and medicines and ensure
safe and rationale drug use. Hence, this course was introduced, to train
professionals who would be known as ‘Clinical Pharmacists’.
The Issues:
The issues
started to appear when the government introduced the course but forgot to
create a cadre for the post of ‘Clinical Pharmacist’. In the absence of these
designations, students are rendered jobless. Then they look for job
opportunities in the private sector where they are offered starting salaries of
a mere ₹15,000-16,000. The problem becomes worse when they have to compete with
other pharmacy students who have completed their B.Pharm or M.Pharm, who
haven’t received theoretical knowledge or practical training to work as
Clinical Pharmacists.
There are 233
colleges approved by the PCI to run the Pharm.D programme. They have produced
an overall of 20,000 graduates, and approximately 9,000 more are graduating
each year. These colleges charge up to ₹2,50,000 per year for this course. One
can understand the pain and sorrow of these students after investing an
exorbitant amount of money and time, gaining knowledge and being unable to
utilise it in the right place.
Who is accountable for this?
The government, the Pharmacy Council of India
or Health Ministry? The answer is hard to find. But when asked about this issue
PCI said they are working on it, the Health minister said that graduates are
eligible to work as a Pharmacist while being silent on the issue of creating
the post for Clinical Pharmacists in the government sector.
To Conclude:
It is very
disheartening to see the results of such a far-sighted course. Both the
government and PCI have failed to display the zeal necessary to salvage this
important course that can help to address present and future health care
issues. Now it is up to professional bodies and the government, whether they
want to step in and do something about it or let these unfortunate souls
curse their decision of joining a profession which they cannot practice even
after holding a Dr. prefix before their names.
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