Unique perspectives of Pharmacy Education in Japan —Core Curriculum and Some Examples of Advanced Education—
Author: Hisakazu Ohtani
Category: Pharmacy
Abstract:
This review aims to introduce the current perspectives of pharmacy education in Japan. In 2006, Japanese pharmacy education system was reformed to have two tracks; the six-year course to produce pharmacists and four-year course to produce researchers, and the model core curriculum was introduced. The current model core curriculum (version 2013) was designed based on the concept of outcome-based education to cover approximately 70% of total classes. Pharmacy students are required to pass two common achievement tests at the end of fourth year - objective structural clinical examination (OSCE) and computer-based testing (CBT) - before pharmacy practice experiences consisting of community pharmacy and hospital rotations. Besides, all the students are required to carry out the research for graduation thesis. While we are facing with a problem of future imbalance between supply and demand of pharmacists, the science-based pharmacy education will expand the role of pharmacists and improve the imbalance.
