Myth Busters: Pharmacists As Clinical Care Providers, Part 1

My background as a physician and my work in healthcare technology has allowed me to work alongside many different types of clinical providers – including pharmacists. It makes sense that collaboration is key to understanding and advancing technology that supports how we all deliver patient care. But could collaboration also benefit patient care itself? Are pharmacists trained to provide clinical care?  

A few of my colleagues shared their experiences, education and training as pharmacists to help debunk some of the misconceptions about pharmacists’ ability to provide accessible, clinical care services to patients across the country.  

This is the first of a two-part series. Check back next month for part two.

Myth 1: Pharmacists’ education is limited to learning how to count pills and dispense medications.

Fact: Safely dispensing medications is just one of the ways pharmacists are trained to support patient care, but it doesn’t end there. More than half of the nation’s licensed pharmacists are Doctors of Pharmacy. They receive as much classroom clinical instruction as medical doctors, according to a Deloitte report on the profession’s future. 

Pharmacists must earn an undergraduate degree or complete multiple years of undergraduate work before starting pharmacy school. According to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, most students graduate with a Pharm.D. after first completing a 4-year program that equips them to practice in a broad range of settings, including primary care. 

Myth 2: Pharmacists are not prepared to manage patients with common or chronic conditions.  

Fact: Pharmacists’ education provides a foundation for them to practice as an extension of primary care providers, especially with respect to chronic condition management. Pharmacists’ education teaches a process by which pharmacists evaluate the indication, effectiveness, safety and convenience of drug therapy. Equipped with this skill set, pharmacists are ideal collaborators among the health care team and can manage complex medication regimens. They can also provide prevention services like health assessments, screenings and test-to-treat for common illnesses, like conducting a test for streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) and prescribing treatment as needed. 

Many pharmacists pursue additional specialized training in clinical settings after graduating, including one- and two-year residency programs focused on certain patient populations or disease states. In addition, licensed pharmacists can also become board certified in one of more than 14 recognized Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS), with approximately 50,920 total active BPS credentials in the United States in 2022.  

Pharmacy residencies have grown from 5,127 in 2019 to 5,832 in 2023, according to this report from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Moreover, 4,890 people matched with 2,162 pharmacy residency programs across the country in this year alone, signaling the value of pharmacists with advanced clinical training. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1 in 5 Americans will be classified as elderly by 2050 and more than a quarter of U.S. adults face multiple common chronic conditions, like diabetes and hypertension. One analysis of high-risk patients found they visited their community pharmacy an average of 35 times per year, compared to four visits to their primary care provider and nine visits to specialists.