The Impact of Faculty Functioning as Institutional Pharmacists on Pharmacy Practice in a Hospital

Abstract

Kitasato University has four affiliated hospitals. Each pharmacy student practices at one of them for 11 weeks during their fifth year of school. The first 4 weeks are spent learning general practice in the Department of Pharmacy, then students participate in clinical practice for the other 7 weeks. Both the faculty functioning as institutional pharmacists and the staff pharmacists act as preceptors for students during this pharmacy practice experience in Kitasato University Hospital. We conducted a questionnaire survey for students to determine the value of the faculty in this 11-week pharmacy practice experience. Students were surveyed between April 2010 and December 2011. One-hundred-sixty students responded. Most of the responding students reported that the faculty were necessary and they valued both the faculty and staff pharmacists as preceptors. The results demonstrate that collaboration between the faculty and staff pharmacists is useful for hospital pharmacy practice experience. It reduces student anxiety, due to familiarity with the faculty, and also enhances perceived educational benefit.