Canidate?

Yes, I realize that im on a roll lately. Turns out i’ve had a bunch of shitty days at work that just fuel the anger (and gin consumption).
Whats up with pharmacy schools and the use of the title “PharmD Candidate” for students? This only cropped up because I recieved an email from a student from the “Thomas J Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences” thats at the “University of the Pacific”.
Jesus thats a long name for a pharmacy school. Why couldnt they just say “School of Pharmacy?”. If I ever strike it rich, i’m going to call up this “University of the Pacific” and say:
“Hello, this is the Angry Pharmacist. I wish to donate 100 million dollars to your Pharmacy School, but in return you must name it the ‘Dirty Cocksucking Whore School of Pharmacy and Douche Usage Science’”. I bet they do just that, and pharmacy students everywhere will curse my name.
But back to the Candidate part.
Is this a fucking contest? Will you win over your classmates to get the elusive title of PharmD? Why dont they just say “pharmacy school student” or “Pharmacy Intern”. Are doctors ‘MD Candidates’?
Okay, so maybe dictionary.com does have as a definition:
4. a student studying for a degree: Candidates for the B.A. will have to meet certain minimum requirements.
But I feel that its dumb. Fucking PharmD’s and their uppityness.

Comments #

Comment by PharmD Candidate on 2006-11-04 21:53:03 -0800 #

You’re just mad you can’t say you’re a doctor. 😛

Comment by Lola on 2006-11-05 01:22:07 -0800 #

I think we still call them pharmacy students over here… PharmD candidates, sounds a little odd to say the least.

Comment by Streaker on 2006-11-06 11:15:24 -0800 #

You think that ones long, try Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center – School of Pharmacy. And try getting someone to buy a T-shirt with that on it, let alone a screen printer to print it for less that $5 a whack. Love the blog, keep up the good work.

Comment by JohnnyOFT on 2006-11-06 16:23:33 -0800 #

I read your columns periodically and want you to know there are other pharmacists out there in line with your viewpoints. I would be honored for you to contact me personally, if only just to say hi.

Comment by Streaker on 2006-11-09 10:13:46 -0800 #

You think the name at UOP is bad. Try this one on for size: Texas Tech University of Health Sciences Center- School of Pharmacy. Now it used to be Texas Tech School of Pharmacy, but some stuck up board or regents decided they wanted to get away from Texas Tech and their reputation as a “party school”, so they renamed the school. All I know is that any bar you go to on a Friday night in this town is about 1/2 to 2/3rds full of Rx school students. Love the blog, keep it up, can’t wait to waste this 4 year doctorate degree in retail.

Comment by The Angry Intern on 2006-11-10 10:03:48 -0800 #

The whole xxxx school of health sciences, u.o.p. school of pharmacy is sadly a “Class Requirement” for Pharmacy Systems and Experience 1. If we dont have that long ass rant about about candidate and xxxxxx school of pharmacy, we fail. Sigh.

Comment by A. on 2006-11-15 21:57:05 -0800 #

That is hysterical! I was also wondering where “pharm d candidate” came from. I have to co-sign the orders they write in our clinic and it leaves me about 2 cm after they write all that crap to squeeze in my name and my “RPh”. I agree..it’s stupid.

Comment by rxsux on 2006-12-17 10:06:06 -0800 #

YES!! I feel like I’ve come home. You won’t get rid of me until you vote me off the island. Angry? Hell ya – This summer I threw 3 staplers at the wall in the same day denting it pretty good. Why? Because they were empty and it pissed me off. I subsequently went to see my NP the next week b/c the look of horror on the techs face made me realize that it probably wasn’t a “normal” thing to do. So now with my Effexor XR and evening Klonopin (with a six pack to be sure that I don’t dream about the people-no I don’t reccommend it to the people, do what I say not as I do blah blah) I now have fewer “fits” of anger although I don’t understand why the phone has not exploded into a thousand bits the number of times I have romped on the poor little fucker just for ringing, which is what it is supposed to do-but hey better living thru chemistry.
I can’t believe how everyone here speaks my language. Beside other Rph’s and techs-no one understands what it is like on the front line of retail. I feel like a whore that gets paid for getting screwed but I don’t have to lie down to do it. I’M A STANDING WHORE!! But everyone thinks it’s so cool when you tell them what you do, although I try to lie and come up with something interesting b/c once you tell them they will start yelling at you about their own bad Rph experience, or want to know if you can get them Vicodin or Cialis. You can’t complain because they know you get paid well-and so do ladies of the evening and don’t you think they would do something else if they could find another job that would pay them as much?? OH I’ve only just begun-bitching about it makes me happy, reading about your pain makes me feel better. Sorry. Thank you-How much do I owe you? I have bc/bs? Whats my co-pay hehehehehehehehe WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DONT KNOW-I crack myself up.

Comment by Hope on 2006-12-23 17:47:25 -0800 #

Yeah, it can sound stupid. BUT while I was in school, it was the last vestige of humnanity that I had left, to remind myself that I was going to get something out of the hell I was in, that MAYBE it would be worth it. If I called myself a PharmD candidate, I had some small, distant thing to look forward to. Even if it was only a title, and 80K in student loan debt.

Comment by Caribbean Pharmacist on 2007-07-20 10:13:02 -0700 #

The nerve these students have nowadays. I could understand if they were upgrading qualifications but this is too much, especially for the soap notes. I would like to take this opportunity to tell all the standing whores (like myself) to hang in there and try talking over your problems with someone you can trust.

Comment by Sarah on 2009-04-19 09:16:39 -0700 #

Man, I always hated my classmates who had all that 2006 Pharm D Candidate signature crap added on the bottom of their emails. The whole snooty I am PharmD thing ticks me off so bad that I never use it – I always sign docs as Jane Doe, RPh, b/c as my BPharm boss once told me, a fancy degree doesn’t mean jack if you aren’t registered with the state and have a license that says “Registered Pharmacist.” The best is when patients call and say “My Rx wasn’t written by Dr. Smith” and I have to explain that is the pharmacist’s name, and then explain my-their degree to them. Jerks. Why was it that my dumbest classmates were always the first to start that PharmD Candidate/Dr. So and So crap?

Comment by TJ Reynolds on 2009-09-11 19:02:08 -0700 #

At my school (the Skaggs School of Pharmacy which is much shorter) a Pharm.D. Candidate differentiates between a 4th student who is on rotations (and thus doing projects and DI questions ect. corresponding with providers) and years 1-3 who have not completed the didactic work yet. It seems stupid I admit, but it is kind of an important distinction to make. We are talking about 4th years who will be your colleagues in a few short months; that should get something different right?

Comment by CharlieRx on 2010-02-17 01:34:13 -0800 #

Hi. I just found TAP and am reading all the blogs and once i got to here, i felt the incredible urge to finally comment and defend UOP…sorta.

I’m from UOP, currently 1st year student. Until now, i didn’t realize everyone was all critical and wondering about that “Pharm D. candidate” crap. I’m actually quite oblivious to the fact that people think UOP kids are all uppity. Anyways I would like to clear some things up.

First off, regarding that long title and everything that you see whenever a script is sent over by a UOP pharmacy intern, we have this “professional conduct” class that TELLS everyone “THAT’S how your signature is gonna look like, THAT’S what i better see as your signature if we (school staff, professors, etc) get an email from you, THAT’S what’s gonna be on your business card from now on. Seriously, it was even an assignment for that class and we had to format it correctly too until we get it right. At first, i thought it was silly, but it just seems like a requirement and everyone else (professors included) that had those long ass signatures under their names so i didn’t give it much thought. I figured…oh, i guess this is the kind of arrogant, look-at-my-huge-pharm-dick pompous way they do things around here.

You’re right, it’s stupid. Candidate? Give me a break. Once you fail a class or two, they drop you as fast as mexicans drop fuck trophies across the borders. I guess they say candidate cus they know there’s always a few people that get into pharmacy and drop out and basically made one huge financial mistake (especially when UOP is a rich snobbish private university).

As for the Thomas J. Long, school of pharmacy & Health Sciences, they brainwashed us into believing that the WHOLE title must be correctly displayed out. Once, i got marked off points cus i didn’t put the period after “J”. UOP is pretty anal-retentive like that. All proud and stuff. In addition, pharmacy isn’t the only graduate programs, there’s also a joint speech pathology, physical therapy and dental hygiene program. Hence “health sciences” is added in recognition of that. All of these different grad programs are taught under the same roof. I know…it sucks when you’re a PT and your title comes off first with “school of pharmacy” =/ just sayin…

Anyways, you may think i hate my school, but i don’t. The teachers here are pretty nice and classes aren’t too bad. I just wanted to say that i’m sorry everyone thinks we’re self-masturbating douches, but honestly, it’s not the student’s fault!! UOP REQUIRES our signatures to be like that. I understand that it’s dumb and annoying but i hope people are more understanding. We don’t wanna look like self-glorified dickheads after all. But i’ll bet some dickheads back in the day thought of enforcing “candidate” and thought it would be a good idea.

Anyways, TAP, i guess you can count on me as another UOP mole haha!

Comment by Beth on 2014-03-01 17:29:00 -0800 #

Wow, more than 7 years later and I just did a Google search to find out WTF a “PharmD candidate” is and this is the first hit on Google!

Hilarious post, by the way!

Comment by gord on 2014-03-14 09:33:47 -0700 #

Funny Beth, I had the exact same experience Googling this term 7 years later. Today is the first time I’ve seen the term as one of my staff (I’m from Canada) is in his second year of a predicted four years to get a non-trad, post-4 yr degree, Pharm D. Glad I looked this up, enjoyed the post and replies… hard not laugh sitting at the unit desk though!