Vietnam

School students must take a national exam to enter a university of pharmacy or the pharmacy department of a university of pharmaco-medicine. About 5- 7% of students pass the exam. There are 3 aspects to the exam. These are on math, chemistry, and physics. After being trained in the university students receive a 5 - year bachelor’s degree in pharmacy (universitary pharmacist to discriminate between college pharmacist or vocational pharmacist). An alternative method of obtaining a Bachelor's degree is as follows. School pupils study in a college of pharmacy or a vocational school of pharmacy. After attending the school or college they go to work. And with two years of practice they could take an exam to enter university of pharmacy or the pharmacy department of a university of pharmaco-medicine. This exam is easier than the national one. Passing the exam they continue studying to gain 3 - year bachelor’s degrees or 4 - year bachelor’s degrees. This degree is considered equivalent to a 5 - year bachelor’s degree.

United States

In the United States, the majority (65%) of pharmacists work in retail settings, mostly as salaried employees but some as self-employed owners. About 22% work in hospitals, and the rest mainly in mail-order or Internet pharmacies, pharmaceutical wholesalers, practises of physicians, and the Federal Government.^[4]

All graduating pharmacists must now obtain the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree before they are eligible to sit for the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) to enter into pharmacy practice.^[20]

Pharmacy School Accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) was founded in 1932 as the accrediting body for schools of pharmacy in the United States.^[21] The mission of ACPE is “To assure and advance excellence in education for the profession of pharmacy.”^[22] ACPE is recognized for the accreditation of professional degree programs by the United States Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).^[23] Since 1975, ACPE has also been the accrediting body for continuing pharmacy education. The ACPE board of directors are appointed by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) (three appointments each), and the American Council on Education (one appointment). In order to obtain licensure in the United States, applicants for the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) must have graduated from an ACPE accredited school of pharmacy. ACPE publishes standards that schools of pharmacy must comply with in order to gain accreditation.^[24] There are currently 30 standards organized within six major categories of 1) mission, planning, and evaluation, 2) organization and administration, 3) curriculum, 4) students, 5) faculty and staff, 6) facilities and resources. A Pharmacy school pursuing accreditation must first apply and be granted Pre-candidate status.^[25] These schools have met all the requirements for accreditation, but have not yet enrolled any students. This status indicates that the school of pharmacy has developed its program in accordance with the ACPE standards and guidelines. Once a school has enrolled students, but has not yet had a graduating class, they may be granted Candidate status. The expectations of a Candidate program are that they will continue to mature in accordance with stated plans. The graduates of a Candidate program are the same as those of fully accredited programs. Full accreditation is granted to a program once they have demonstrated they comply with the standards set forth by ACPE. The customary review cycle for established accredited programs is six years, whereas for programs achieving their initial accreditation this cycle is two years. These are comprehensive on-site evaluations of the programs. Additional evaluations may be conducted at the discretion of ACPE in the interim between comprehensive evaluations.