Empowering Pharmacy Graduates to Diagnose and Prescribe

Abstract

This commentary underscores the diagnosis and prescribing skills essential to the pharmacists’ role on the healthcare team. It advocates for the integration of these skills into pharmacy curricula and emphasizes the urgent need for collaboration among pharmacy educators and the academy to address the omission of diagnosis and prescribing from key frameworks and standards, including the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP) and the Curricular Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities (COEPA). The commentary calls on colleges and schools of pharmacy to recognize and incorporate these aspects into curricular outcomes, and urges the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners to integrate them into practice frameworks. By taking these steps, we can reshape the future of pharmacy education, enhancing patient care and advancing the profession. The commentary also includes a case study of one college of pharmacy’s integration of diagnosis and prescribing skills into its PharmD curriculum, in a state where pharmacists were granted full diagnostic and prescriptive authority. The integration was achieved through faculty-led modifications to the PPCP and COEPA, making diagnosis and prescribing an explicit part of the curriculum.