The Effect of Prerequisite Legislation on Pharmaceutical Education and Licensure, 1905–1925

Robert A. Buerki
Vol. 56, No. 1-2 (2014), pp. 3-20 (17 pages) 

1. The advancement of pharmaceutical education during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was inhibited by a lack of uniform licensure requirements and resistance to educational paths that did not require apprenticeship experience.
2. The Pharmaceutical Syllabus, published in 1910, brought structure and clarity to pharmaceutical education and licensure examination requirements on a national scale by forcing state boards and colleges of pharmacy to develop concurrent curricular standards.
3. Correspondence courses, home study books, and “quiz-compend” licensure exam preparation materials that supplemented apprenticeship experience prevented universal agreement on the necessity of college level education to practice pharmacy.
4. Persistent efforts to require a degree in pharmacy education from a recognized institution were rewarded in the mid-20th century, when all but two states required pharmacists to graduate from a four-year course of study before licensure eligibility.

Travelers, Patent Medicines, and Pharmacopeias: American Pharmacy and British India, 1857 to 1931

Stuart Anderson
Vol. 58, No. 3 (2016), pp. 63-82 (19 pages) 

1. Since the early 19th century, the English found lucrative pharmaceutical markets in India, and stories of exciting opportunities and fortunes to be made there were attractive for imperial and colonial powers.
2. Cons to working in the Indian pharmaceutical market included lesser pay, longer hours, more intensive work, fewer holidays, and encounters with a vastly different culture that had practiced indigenous forms of medicine for millennia.
3. As mass production techniques developed in the American pharmaceutical market, over-stocked companies looked to expand their overseas markets, particularly to British India. With Britain also lacking large-scale manufacturing facilities, companies like Burroughs-Wellcome established ‘Americanized’ manufacturing companies and businesses throughout Britain as well.
4. Americans utilized promotional tactics, such as attending international exhibitions and sending U.S. pharmaceutical agents abroad to promote American products, drug quality, and drug reliability to doctors and pharmacists throughout British India, to expand their market-base.
5. American patent medicines, galenicals, and published materials, including the United States Pharmacopeia and national formularies, found a successful footing in the Indian market and were promoted as ‘civilizing’ forms of western medicine.
6. Although the migration of pharmacists and their products was largely from the United States to British India, American pharmacists imported large quantities of crude Indian drugs, like opium, and sought to uncover the ‘medicinal treasures’ they believed had yet to be discovered there.

Transformation of a Profession: An Overview of the 20th Century

Robert M. Elenbaas, Dennis B. Worthen
Vol. 51, No. 4 (2009), pp. 151-182 (32 pages)

1. Since the mid-20th century, pharmacy has transformed from a product-centered retail occupation to a patient-centered profession that focuses on producing positive outcomes from patient therapy.
2. Public perception of pharmacists has driven efforts for professionalization, increased educational requirements, and a focus on patient-centered care.
3. Clinical pharmacy and the increasing need for drug-misuse prevention and safe, effective therapies enabled pharmacists to become an integral part of interdisciplinary patient care.
4. Pharmacy’s educational reform efforts were reflective of their professionalization desires, driving the level of education required for an entry-level position to evolve from the 4-year BS to a 6-year Pharm D., with an emphasis on increasingly essential residency experience and advanced specialization degrees.
5. Evolving healthcare legislation, like the passage of the Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1962, the introduction of Medicaid and Medicare Insurance in 1965, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, continued to expand the pharmacist’s role in patient counseling, therapeutic review, and safe drug use.

A History of the Women's Professional Pharmacy Fraternities, 1913-1988

Diane Mulvey Shehata
Vol. 52, No. 1 (2010), pp. 24-45 (22 pages)

1. The Lambda Kappa Sigma and Kappa Epsilon Greek-letter fraternities, founded in the early 20th century, are the first professional pharmacy associations established to promote women in pharmacy.
2. Women’s professional pharmacy fraternities promoted high educational standards, individual merit, unity and loyalty among the sisterhood, and philanthropic involvement.
3. College fraternities reflected larger societal attitudes toward race, ethnicity, religion, and class, and many adopted discriminatory clauses. These are most notable in their prevention of women of color and Jewish descent from joining their fraternities until the mid-20th century.
4. Women’s fraternities relied heavily on the support of their alumni, who continue to provide financial aid, networking opportunities, and guidance for fraternity management, to maintain their success.

From Family Helpmeet to Independent Professional: Women in American Pharmacy, 1870-1940

Teresa Catherine Gallagher
Pharmacy in History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1989), pp. 60-77 

1. Before pharmacy transitioned into the commercial sphere, women commonly practiced pharmacy by experimenting with herbs and medicine making to care for their friends and relatives, or by working alongside male pharmacists in their family.
2. The chief obstacle for many women aspiring to practice pharmacy was finding an apprenticeship or practical experience that was required for licensure in the profession.
3. Women pharmacists gravitated towards the more progressive hospital pharmacy sector which offered them greater employment opportunities and professional autonomy than the retail sector.
4. Attitudes toward women in pharmacy closely followed pharmacy’s professionalization efforts, economic trends, movement to centralize pharmacy education, and male pharmacist supply, particularly during war periods.
5. Schools of pharmacy often depended on admitting female students in order to maintain funding and keep enrollment numbers high, but recognized that on average female applicants were more qualified than men and positively raised the standards of the pharmacy profession.

Zada Mary Cooper: Grand and Glorious Lady of Pharmacy

Metta Lou Henderson
Vol. 40, No. 2/3 (1998), pp. 77-84 (8 pages)

1. Cooper was instrumental in the founding of Kappa Epsilon, a national fraternity focused on promoting women in pharmacy, and the Rho Chi honorary pharmaceutical fraternity, both of which sought to promote the highest ideals of professional and personal conduct in pharmacy practice.
2. Zada Cooper’s work as a faculty member at the State University of Iowa, where she reached emeritus status, focused on pharmaceutical arithmetic and pharmaceutical laboratory education that was nationally recognized and earned her an associate position on the APhA Committee on Education and Legislation.
3. Zada Cooper extensively contributed to pharmaceutical publications throughout her life, writing on a breadth of subjects related to pharmacy practice, women in pharmacy, improving pharmaceutical education, promoting safe medication use, and pharmacy literature and the Bible.

Sister Pharmacists and Pharmacy Practice from the 1700s to the 1970s

Metta Lou Henderson and Sister Margaret Wright
Vol. 50, No. 2 (2008), pp. 70-81 (12 pages)

1. Women of religious orders were among the first females to learn pharmacy through apprenticeship, allowing them to more easily obtain licensure after practical experience became a prerequisite for professional status.
2. The Catholic Sister pharmacists trumpeted the feminist movement by pushing back against male pharmacists barring them from state board exams out of fear that their hospital pharmacies would prove too competitive.
3. Sister Pharmacists were innovative in supplying medications and hospital supplies, influencing hospital pharmacy design, accommodating patient needs, and educating other pharmacists and health care professionals about their knowledge and experiences.
4. Sister Pharmacists were instrumental in promoting hospital pharmacy as school of pharmacy faculty members, and often returned to institutions of higher education to access specialized internships and earn graduate degrees.
5. The Sisters were pioneers in providing drug information and drug consultation services to physicians and other hospital staff.

 

Female Workers Filling Capillary Tubes with Glycerinized Lymph at the H.K. Mulford Co. Laboratories, Early 20th Century