ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to give the author’s views on the B.S. vs. Pharm.D. debate from the perspective of the Dean of one of the four historically Black Colleges of Pharmacy. Data seem to indicate that all colleges/schools of pharmacy offer or soon will offer the Pharm.D. degree in the near future. The rhetorical question and criticism by many in the pharmacy profession is whether or not all graduates need the Pharm.D. degree. The author concludes that they do, and the reason is they can better market themselves.
The author states that the entry-level Pharm.D. program will have a significant impact on the African Americans and other minority pharmacists. It is predicted that given current trends, there may be a decline of African American and Hispanic pharmacy students enrolled as schools convert to the entry-level Pharm.D. The author concludes that minority pharmacists, in the future, without a Pharm.D. could face racial discrimination with the lack of a Pharm.D. being used as a potential “legitimate” excuse to not hire them in key administrative, clinical or other nontraditional roles. African-American pharmacists could find themselves as a “double minority”–vis à vis, with a B.S. pharmacy degree and African American.
