In advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) in community pharmacies in Japan, students are not always satisfied with over-the-counter (OTC) counseling practice. Aiming to improve the quality of such practice, we conducted a questionnaire survey of 167 students after their APPE to assess student satisfaction and the current status and problems they experienced with OTC counseling practice. The results revealed that opportunities for practice differed among sites. While 27.8% of students had experienced selling OTC drugs to patients, 11.4% of students carried out no selling, shadowing or role play (RP). The difference arose also in student satisfaction. As expected, most students who experienced selling OTC drugs to patients rated the practice most favorably, especially students who had experienced consultation sales obtained higher satisfaction. On the other hand, most students who experienced both shadowing and RP but not the opportunity to sell OTC drugs also rated the practice quite positively; in particular, students who had more than six opportunities for shadowing and RP rated the practice favorably. In conclusion, although OTC counseling is not well practiced during APPE, mainly because of limited opportunities to sell OTC drugs, student satisfaction may be improved by introducing and increasing opportunities for shadowing and RP.
