Mandatory 5 year Degree course of B.Pharmacy!!!

This blog is intended to stress the importance of adoption of a compulsory 5 year degree course in B.Pharmacy in India.

As we all B.Pharm students and Pharmacy professionals know that B.Pharm course currently has a duration of 4 years in India. Well, it sounds good that we are able to complete such a professional medical course in just 4 years. When we think of the aftermath of degree course, we are left with 2 main options:

1) Get into a job

2) Study Further

Most students prefer 2nd option, i.e.- to study futher, either M.Pharm and Ph.D or M.S. and Ph.D abroad (though there are other options too!!!). But when it comes to a combination of work and foreign areas, i.e.- to work abroad after bachelor's degree, we find ourselves into a big trouble, especially trouble in getting into a job in countries like U.S.A etc. This is because the entry into pharmacy work profession after B.Pharm demands qualifying 2 exams:

1)FPGEE

2)NAPLEX

FPGEE or FOREIGN PHARMACY GRADUATE EXAMINATION COMMITTEE (FPGEC) CERTIFICATION

FPGEE demands that foreign-educated pharmacy students who have completed their degree on or after January 1, 2003, will require a professional degree from a five-year curriculum program in order to apply for FPGEE or Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination CommitteeT (FPGEC®) Certification. This change affects only those candidates who earn a pharmacy degree after the 2003 deadline. The new curriculum FPGEE requirements do not apply to foreign-educated pharmacists who have earned a four-year degree prior to January 1, 2003. These individuals will remain eligible for FPGEE under the current program requirements of a four-year curriculum.

The FPGEC Certification program or FPGEE is accepted by more than 48 state boards of pharmacy as a means of documenting the educational equivalency of a candidate’s foreign pharmacy education. Foreign educated pharmacists succesfully passed FPGEC certification are considered to have partially fulfilled eligibility requirements for licensure in those states that accept the Certification.

NAPLEX

The NAPLEX, or North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, is a standard examination, created by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to help individual state boards of pharmacy assess an individual's competency and knowledge so that he or she may be given a license to practice.
The NAPLEX is exclusively a computer-administered exam. Applicants must register with an official testing facility, such as Prometric, at least two business days in advance to schedule a testing appointment. The exam consists of 185 questions and has a time limit of four hours and fifteen minutes, with a mandatory ten-minute break after approximately two hours.
The NAPLEX is an adaptive examination in that it tailors itself to the skill level of the applicant. Because of the linear nature of the exam (applicants must answer a question to continue, and there is no backtracking), the computer is able to zero-in on incorrect responses and select similar questions for presentation later in the exam. This allows for analyzation of the applicants' skill level across several performance categories.

Thus, we see that the present situation in pharma world requires a mandatory 5 year degree course in pharmacy instead of conventional 4 year duration. This emphasizes the importance of giving time and stressing importance on each and every aspect of health-care involved in the profession. This surely shows how important it has become for pharmacy course of every country in the world to be in pace with the growing demands of global health-care.