Evaluation of the pharmacy practice program in the 6-year pharmaceutical education curriculum in Japan: community pharmacy practice program

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to highlight concerns with the current pharmacy practice program and suggest aspects for improvement. A further aim of the study was to enhance the educational effects of the program, from the students' point of view. METHODS We surveyed 1,607 pharmacy students in Japan who had completed the pharmacy practice program in either 2010 or 2011. The students completed a self-descriptive questionnaire comprising 48 questions examining their experience of the pharmacy practice program. RESULTS For community pharmacy practice, four factors were extracted through exploratory analysis: "satisfactory learning (pharmacy)," "support system of the university," "creation and clarification of the training plan," and "dialogue with patients." When comparing the mean values for each of the four factors between 2011 and 2012, the 2012 group scored significantly higher (p < 0.001) on "support system of the university" only. In the free responses, it became apparent that, for the joint training held in certain regions, students evaluated such training to be useful and effective. Moreover, we conducted an overall evaluation of the pharmacy practice programs. From the results of McNemar's test, from 2011 to 2012, there was a significant decrease in the number of students who were unable to experience "charge system of patients" at neither hospitals nor pharmacies (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS For community pharmacy practice, there were no significant differences found for the factors, with the exception of the "support system of the university." In addition, to accomplish the learning objectives, community pharmacy practice program introduced some initiatives. Furthermore, conducting training at multiple facilities deepens student learning and assists with the correction of problems, such as the disparities within the teaching system and learning content at each of the training facilities.