Problems and Prospect of Undergraduate Pharmacological Programs of Nursing Universities and Colleges in Japan

Abstract

　Undergraduate pharmacological programs of nursing universities and colleges in Japan have various problems; the lectures cover a wide range of pharmacology topics but are held in a short term during the first or second year when most students lack the prerequisite knowledges of chemistry, pathophysiology and clinical medicine. A number of reports have warned that pharmacological knowledge among graduating nursing students is not sufficient to deliver safe medical care, and this unfortunate situations seems to have direct relationship with increasing number of medication errors observed in hospitals and the community. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan established a model core curriculum for nursing education. This core curriculum stresses the importance of sharing common values among all the healthcare professionals stating at the undergraduate level, and setting lofty goals similar to those described in the model-core curriculum for medical education. The next step for each university/college is re-examination of the pharmacology education curriculum while reference to the model core curriculum. Several models of collaborative education systems between basic science programs and specialized subjects for nursing have been reported. Those systems seem useful but difficult to implement in the current situation described above. At present, the careful selection and prioritization of education content will be required to meet the aims of model core curriculum. In addition, all the education staff must take the time to reinforce pharmacological knowledge among graduating nurse students in order bridge the theory-practice gap leading to medication errors.