Complementary and alternative medicine education in United States pharmacy schools

Abstract

Seventy-seven pharmacy colleges in the United States were surveyed to assess the degree to which instruction in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) was included in the pharmacy curriculum. Fifty schools responded to the survey out of 77 solicited (65 percent). Of these, 36 schools (72 percent) offer coursework in either herbal medicine or other areas of CAM. Thirty schools (60 percent) indicated that herbal medicine coursework is distributed throughout one or more courses available in pharmacy education while 26 schools (52 percent) indicated the availability of other alternative medicine course work in their curriculum. Most schools offering CAM coursework reported a combination of required and elective instruction. In general, PharmD programs were slightly less likely than BS programs to offer CAM coursework, but this trend was linked closely to the overall number of elective hours available in each program. Although the primary instructor for CAM classes was a PhD or PharmD, 14 of 31 schools reported utilizing alternative practitioners as supplemental instructors.