This won’t be confusing at all.
An extended masters program in pharmacy is in the works up in north Queensland, which will finally open the door to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
As reported in Pharmacy Daily, James Cook University announced at a pharmacy conference last week that the regional university would be offering a five-year pharmacy qualification, which would be built on to its existing pharmacy Bachelor’s degree.
It will integrate “advanced training” in prescribing, chronic disease management and business skills.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Associate Professor Trent Twomey also reportedly said that while a pharmacist cannot use the title “doctor”, the guild would “fix” this in a matter of months.
The Medical Republic reached out to the Guild for comment on how patients would be able to distinguish between medical doctors and doctors of pharmacy. It declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time that Australia has come close to having a Doctor of Pharmacy degree; the University of Sydney announced one in 2022, but this no longer appears on its website.
A Doctor of Pharmacy degree was agreed to as a measure in the seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement, with the government pledging to “take all reasonable steps” to enable the holder of an Australian Qualifications Framework Level 9 Masters Degree (extended) in pharmacy to be treated “by exemption” as though they had a level 10 qualification.
Level 10, a doctoral degree, is the highest level of qualification obtainable in Australia.
It’s also how one would normally achieve the ‘doctor’ title, which is not normally awarded for an extended masters except in the cases of medical practitioners, dentists, vets, optometrists and physiotherapists.
Related
Doctor is not a protected title in Australia, meaning that anyone is able to use it.
However, AHPRA’s advertising guidelines do state that if the title is used in advertising and does not refer to a registered medical practitioner, it should be made clear in parenthesis.
The move to introduce a Doctor of Pharmacy comes at the same time as pharmacist powers have been expanded to include prescribing alongside dispensing. James Cook University is also located in North Queensland, where the state’s infamous pharmacist-led prescribing pilot has now started.
