Dear David,
As I said it is difficult to compare and for details you could
contact e.g. Prof. L. de Jong-van den Berg in Groningen
(lolkje@farm.rug.nl).
Student in NL start when they are 18 years old in university. The
basic scientific course, leading up to the equivalen of a masters
degree, takes officially 4 years, unofficially 5 years. There is no
BSc.
The system is not devided into semesters, but a university year runs
from september till july (approx. 6-7 weeks holiday/year), starts at
9 and ends at 17h.
During the master period there are a number of basic and applied
subjects to be taken, from chemistry and physical chemistry,
biochemics and statistics, to apllied sciences like compounding,
clinical pharmacy, pharmacotherapy and social pharmacy. But,
depending on the topics chosen, the student is allowed to continue
after their masters degree for the pharmacist degree (another 1 1/2
year, of which part in practice). This pharmacist degree is
equivalent to a PharmD. Holders of this PharmD degree may call
themselfs pharmacists.
If you want to be a ' doctor', then you must do an extra 4-5 years of
research after the Masters degree in one of the pharmaceutical
sciences, and you end up with a PhD.
Basically this means that if you have not chosen the proper subjects
during your master study, you can be a pharmaceutical scientist,
without being a pharmacist.
If you have chosen wrongly, then you must first complete the
required topics, before you can start the pharmacist education.
If you want to be the owner of a community pharmacy in the
Netherlands, then you must complete an additional 2 years education
(mostly in practice) after you have your pharmacist degree (the
PharmD equivalent).
If you want to be a licensed hospital pharmacist, then you must
complete an additional 4 years education (mostly in practice), after
you have your basic pharmacist degree (the PharmD equivalent).
This means that the total study to be a fully licensed community
pharmacist takes 4 + 1 1/2 + 2 = 7 1/2 year.
Foppe
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Foppe van Mil, PhD, Pharm D. Pharmacy practice consultant
Margrietlaan 1, NL 9471 CT Zuidlaren, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 50 4094333. Fax +31 50 4090732. Email: jwfvmil@wxs.nl
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