Abstract
We conducted a questionnaire survey to evaluate the success of the Early Exposure programme which was introduced for first-year students following the new 6-year pharmaceutical education syllabus.Under the programme,pharmacy students visited community and hospital pharmacies to experience the work of pharmacists or to listen to lectures given by them.The questionnaire was completed by the 85 community pharmacies and 39 hospital pharmacies that accepted first-year students from Kobe Pharmaceutical University,Kobe-gakuin University,or Mukogawa Women’s University in Hyogo Prefecture.
Ninety percent of the community and hospital pharmacies had provided students with the opportunity to observe their day-to-day work,60% had provided lectures and 30% had given them the chance to experience the work of the pharmacy.The pharmacists involved considered communication with students to be the most important aspect of the programme.
Though the Early Exposure programme resulted in additional work for pharmacy staff,they considered it to be worthwhile and felt that they had good communication with the students.They considered the“ethics of prescribing”,“the pharmacist as a medical specialist”,“responsibilities of pharmacists”and“the job of the pharmacist”to be the key aspects of the Early Exposure programme.However,they requested that the universities and the students think more about the significance of the programme and its objectives beforehand.Also,while they felt that the students needed to be taught how to behave more professionally,overall,they had a positive opinion of the Early Exposure programme.
Such collaboration between community and hospital pharmacies and university staff is extremely useful in the development and implementation of educational programmes for pharmacists.
