California Pharmacist Spring 2025 - Flipbook - Page 8
perspective
The Pragmatic Approach: Why 3-Year Doctor of
Pharmacy Programs Are the Future
Vista Khosraviani
Historically, the 4-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree served as the
established gold standard for pharmacy
curriculum. However, these traditional
4-year programs (4YPs) are now being
challenged by the increasing prevalence
of accelerated three-year programs
(3YPs). Offered numerous pharmacy
school options, students increasingly
favor the economical and time-efficient
3YPs. A paradigm shift in pharmaceutical education is necessary, embracing
efficiency and adaptability to embrace
3YPs as the new gold standard.
As the research article in this issue by
Khachatryan et al. makes clear, student
pharmacists and the faculty of 3YP
schools are having difficulty balancing
the demands of academia with quality
of life, students’ work-life balance, and
faculty members’ workloads.1 As a faculty member in a pharmacy school that
has excelled over the past half century
with a 3YYP, I can see the importance
of some of the programs we have at the
University of the Pacific.
The fundamental premise of a 3YP
leans on the element of efficiency. By
prioritizing students, an effective yet
condensed pharmacy curriculum aims
to reduce curricular overload and
financial burden, accelerating their
entry into patient care. Notably, a 3YP
will generate significant savings in tuition, living expenses, and commuting
throughout the program, thereby decreasing the crippling debt often faced
by graduates. Newly minted pharmacists entering the workforce earlier will
benefit from accelerated professional
experience and enhanced long-term
earning potential. Furthermore, this
is advantageous for healthcare, given
®¯
¥
6
vol. 72, no. 1 | California Pharmacist
the critical role pharmacists play in
ongoing patient care.
The primary objections to the 3YP
are twofold: apprehensions about the
thoroughness of the educational experience and worries concerning student
and faculty burnout. A well-designed,
adaptable 3YP, with strong support,
effectively addresses those concerns.
The Pacific's Thomas J. Long School of
Pharmacy, which created in 1970 the
nation's first accelerated 3YP, exemplifies the success of this model.
Our programs and practices developed
over the years contribute to the success of our 3YP. Key features include
an integrated curriculum, intensive
experiential learning, streamlined
didactic lectures, and rigorous continuous assessment. An integrated
curriculum, effectively intertwining
foundational sciences with clinical
therapeutics, demonstrates the relevance of learning, enhancing student
comprehension and retention. Early
introduction to a strong and robust
selection of experiential experiences
in diverse settings prepares students
early on how to handle real-world
patient care scenarios. Moreover, the
program’s efficient didactic coursework
reduces unnecessary redundancy and
effectively uses time and resources to
focus on essential pharmacy practice
competencies. Lastly, continuous formative assessments, including biweekly
integrated exams, maintain educational
rigor and quality while upholding high
pharmacy standards.
During its 55 years of successful 3YP
operation, the Thomas J. Long School
of Pharmacy provides a proven model
for other pharmacy schools to adapt
and refine for their own success. The
program’s strategic scheduling, accessible wellness resources, and supportive
community culture help mitigate faculty and student burnout effectively. For
example, a unique wellness resource offered by the program was a petting zoo
designed to help students and faculty
decompress, interact with animals, and
socialize outside academic pressures.
Faculty-supported fraternities, professional organizations, and clinics, such
as Medicare Part D Outreach Clinics
and Clinica Tepati, offer students a
wide range of leadership opportunities
to foster student development and professional growth. Despite year-round
teaching, the accelerated curriculum
aims to ease faculty workload by promoting efficient content delivery.
Conversely, the perceived benefits of
4YPs include a higher quality of life, a
less demanding curriculum, and more
time for volunteer and work experience. Arguably, 4YPs give students
more time to pursue research opportunities and strategically plan their
career preferences. However, whether
students effectively use the allotted
time is unclear. From a curricular perspective, 4YPs offer students more time
for concept comprehension, yet this
additional didactic year risks curricular overload and increased faculty and
student workloads. 4YPs translate to
a significant financial loss for students, who forego a year's earnings as
licensed pharmacists while potentially
incurring higher total costs of their
pharmacy education.
The ongoing evolution of pharmacy
education necessitates efficiency and
adaptability, ultimately positioning
3YPs as the new gold standard. The
Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy's
enduring success demonstrates that
streamlined didactics and experiential
education can effectively prepare students for lifelong success in pharmacy.
Today’s transformative climate in pharmacy education mandates our firm
consideration of 3YPs as the future of
pharmacy education.
References
1. Khachatryan T, Gonzalez Quesada A,
Anoundjian A et al. Impact of 3- versus
4-year pharmacy degree programs
on students and faculty. Calif Pharm.
2025;72(1):26-30.
