PharmD Info

List of questions raised and discussed during our PharmD Info Group Discussion: 1 --- Expectations, Facts and Reality – Clinical
Pharmacist in Indian Healthcare” – 20.07.2018 & 21.07.2018

1. Why "Dr" Prefix or "Doctor" of Pharmacy?
2. What should i focus during my Internship training?
3. In hospital which department has good scope for service as clinical pharmacist?
4. What were your challenges during your journey as a clinical pharmacist?
5. The acceptance levels of your services by other healthcare professionals in hospitals?
6. What Is The Difference Between The Pharm.D. Program and the Ph.D. Program?
7. How do you measure or evaluate the quality of your clinical pharmacy services in hospital?
8. How about Clinical Pharmacist career growth pattern? What is your focus at present?
9. Which is better? Evidence based medicine knowledge vs Practical knowledge.
10. What are our possibilities of higher studies after Pharm D? Can you please suggest few?
11. Can you please help us with standard books or articles to study regarding Antibiotics?
12. Are you involved in any clinical decision making as a clinical pharmacist?
13. Is it good do a Ph.D after PharmD under Technical University?
14. How to standardize clinical pharmacy service across India?
15. How about patients understanding about our clinical pharmacy service?
16. How are you getting updated about recent Drugs/ Dosage forms? What is your resource?
17. What are the criteria’s you focus under pharmacy domain for NABH accreditation purpose?
18. On what basic I should design or set my pharmd fifth year project?
19. How do you handle angry, irritating or tricky patients while you counsel them?
20. How you will apply your treatment guideline knowledge in real practice settings?
21. In which way we should train the students on following the treatment guidelines?
22. Is there any guidelines from NABH? Or any resources?
23. How does the payscale vary for a clinical pharmacist in India?
24. What is your opinion on doing specializations/residential programs after Pharm.D? How this will improve our level of services?
25. How are the services provided by us are recognized in hospital setup? How is the internship different from work-place?
26. How we should create a professional rapport with other healthcare professionals?
27. How do you overcome the language barriers when you communicate with your patients?
28. What all are the skills do we need to develop to become a successful clinical pharmacist?
29. Which all hospitals provide a chance to work as a clinical pharmacist in India?
30. Other than patient orientated care, what are the other roles of a clinical pharmacist??
31. Government offers pharmacovigilance courses at free of cost?
32. What do you think is being the hindrance for the recognition and development of the scope for clinical pharmacists in India? Do you believe it is the quality of the students?
33. Approximately how many clinical interventions are made in a day by a clinical pharmacist in your working place?

sandhoshini meena wrote: ↑21 Jul 2018, 19:28 Dear sir,
I want to know whether the government offers pharmacovigilance courses at free of cost.

If you are pursuing PharmD, Pharmacovigilance is a part of it.
However, Government of India under IPC recognizes PvPI centers where they appoint a PvPI executive, who receive training for the same.
You can check out on PvPI website.

In which way will the Pharm D holders differ from B.Pharm holders in community pharmacy? .So far how many counseling centers are run by the clinical pharmacists?

bhavatharini.arun3 wrote: ↑21 Jul 2018, 19:30 Sir I have 2 questions
1.What do you think is being the hindrance for the recognision and development of the scope for clinical pharmacists in India? Do you believe it Is the quality of the students ?
2. Approximately how many clinical interventions are made in a day by a clinical pharmacist working in a tertiary care hospital ?

That is a really good question. I really appreciate this.
We need to understand Healthcare system was before us and might be as well after us or without us. I am not denying the importance of clinical pharmacists, but, to stand out and become an important aspect of this system is the pinnacle of being PharmD or clinical pharmacists.

PharmD is an excellent and in depth program designed by PCI and is introduced at a very correct time in our system. As far as i understand and what my experience say is that even if one grasps a good and complete knowledge of PharmD curriculum, he or she shall excel in the way it is designed to be.

We need not to be proud about being PharmDs until we prove the quality we are meant to be. Focus should not be on the degree designated, it should purely be on PharmD degree EARNED. People will understand eventually.
And yes this "not up to the mark" quality is one of the contributing factors for the hindrance in recognition and development of the scope for clinical pharmacists in our country.
Try to learn, read as much as you can, ask questions to your teachers until you get satisfied or search for your own answers before you leave your college or internship, we are still in beginner phase. Every one of us can become excellent clinical pharmacists and serve our society with fullest.

Learning should never end. Even today when i meet other pharmacy students and when they greet me by saying "good morning.....I am a pharmacy student"....My reply to this always remains "Hello, I am also a student. Nice to meet you." Learning is a continuous process (especially in this field).


As far as clinical intervention is concerned, it purely depends on how much can one approach.
Its hard to comment on that but, one can understand it as in general every 2nd to 3rd patient reviewed might need an intervention which may lead to the betterment of his/ her care.

deepapharmacy1 wrote: ↑21 Jul 2018, 21:32 In which way will the Pharm D holders differ from B.Pharm holders in community pharmacy? .So far how many counseling centers are run by the clinical pharmacists?

Community Pharmacy or Hospital Pharmacy or Clinical Pharmacy.....whatever it may be, this course is designed from a clinical aspect.
Understanding of therapeutics, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacoeconomics etc. differ it from other pharmacy courses. So, when a PharmD / clinical pharmacist is available for a patient, they can definitely deliver more as far as patient's questions or counseling is concerned. This might also help other areas of Pharmacy which are otherwise oriented and designed for different aspect of development to learn from.

As far as number of counseling centers are concerned, i am not really sure about it but, counseling do happen often which may not be necessarily in a dedicated counseling center.

sir, is pharm.d a doctoral degree or a post graduation degree?

Admin wrote: ↑20 Jul 2018, 21:46 Dear Dr Govinda, How you will apply your treatment guideline knowledge in real practice settings? In which way we should train the students on this matter? So many guidelines and so many evidences. How about shared care protocols ?

1) Students should primarily focus and follow on what is written in our referenced book's latest editions.
2) If there is an update in some guidelines it should be Evidence based (best is a randomized controlled trial) or Indian treatment protocols approved by MoHFW.

For example: In recent years good published article revealed that use of Nebulized Colistin along with IV contributes more in recovering from Klebseilla pnuemonia, so we started using nebulized colistin through mesh vibrating nebulizer which is quite expensive. Few patients did respond.
Now, recently another RCT published guideline suggested no statistical difference between nebulized and IV Colistin vs only IV colistin.

Sir,
Based on your experience as a clinical pharmacist how do you identify ADR's and drug interactions? How do you validate a drug interaction based on its pharmacokinetic profile?

Bhavya Chebrolu wrote: ↑21 Jul 2018, 22:17 sir, is pharm.d a doctoral degree or a post graduation degree?

Its post graduate professional doctorate.

Whatever it is, How does it matter?
What matters is how you use it. That makes a difference.