Clinical Pharmacy

[firasaljumilay]

Hello! I have an inquiry about Clinical pharmacy, actually I'm a 3rd year "General" Pharmacy student in the University of Cairo. I have a future thoughts of immigrating and working in Canada as my dad lived there and graduated from the UoA so I would love to live in Canada. I have been searching a lot about jobs in Canada and most of them are Clinical jobs so what I did is searching for MSc. in Clinical pharmacy in Canada so I can apply for in the near future but I didn't find anything related only MSc. in Pharmaceutics. My college does offer Clinical MSc. includes 2 terms but I thought It'd be better studying in Canada rather than Cairo. So my question is how do you become a Clinical pharmacist? let's assume I graduated and I wanted to become a Clinical pharmacist, what should I do? I would appreciate your help, it will help me setting up my goals.

 

Regards..

[TARS]

Usually to be a clinical pharmacist you have to do a residency that is accredited by CPRB (Canadian Pharmacy Residency Board) at a program listed on CSHP's (Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists) website. You get put through a matching system similar to physicians called PRAMS (Pharmacy Residency Application Matching System).  You do 1 year of paid residency training (PGY1) and that will get you an ACPR (Accredited Canadian Pharmacy Resident) designation to practice as a clinical pharmacist, usually in a hospital setting.  I'm not sure the regulations with IPGs (International Pharmacy Grads), but I believe you need a Canadian permanent residence or citizenship to apply, but not sure.

On the site note, many community pharmacies post that they're hiring a "clinical pharmacist", which just means they want you to take on an expanded scope of practice (adaptations, med reviews), which is often abused as a money grab instead of a good clinical service (if it's done right, it can make huge impacts but many stores push poorly done ones for money). This does not require a residency, and you only need a regular license.  Hospital positions where you do clinical activity on the ward outside of the dispensary is when you need a residency (generally speaking).

EDIT: We don't do M.Sc. as a practicing degree in Canada as far as I know.  M.Sc. and PhDs in pharmaceutical sciences are research degrees, usually wet lab, and don't give you the right to practice at all.