KUWAIT CITY, July 21: The decision to implement the Doctor of Pharmacy programme (Pharm.D) has caused mixed reactions. The programme calls for pharmacy students at Kuwait University to study for 7 years to become clinical pharmacists.

Some support the programme as being in the interest of education, while many opposed it and considered it unjustified and did not serve students, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Kuwait Pharmacy Student’s Society denounced the decision claiming that it “compels students to study 7 years to obtain a clinical pharmacy certificate, while some jobs are satisfied with a bachelor’s degree which takes only 5 years”, stating that “the job description and the financial reward of the clinical pharmacist is the same as the one a pharmacist gets.”

The society considered the decision to be “unfair to those who studied additional two years, as some jobs only need a bachelor’s degree, such as working in warehouses and drug control,” as it “will lead to an increase in the number of clinical pharmacists.” Students who spoke to the daily described the decision as “ill-advised, as the Kuwaiti hospitals cannot accommodate this number of Kuwaiti pharmacists, and it is not possible at the same time to differentiate between clinical pharmacists and others,” noting that it “confuses students who are dispatched on scholarship to countries that do not follow the same system.”

On the other hand, Dr Muhsin Hadiya, a faculty member, sees the decision as an “excellent step in the development of pharmaceutical education in the country, and it catches up with the great development that has occurred in the practice of this profession in all parts of the world, the Gulf and the Arab countries,” noting “the programme qualifies students to provide sophisticated pharmaceutical services”.

Dr Hadiya stressed that the new programme gives students a “Doctor of Pharmacy” degree with additional skills so that the graduate will be able to cooperate with the healthcare team. He indicated the concept of students spending seven years in order to acquire the degree obtained in five years by their colleagues in the past years is incorrect.