Abstract
The Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists started a continuing education (CE) system for its members in April 1993. The program issues a certificate of completion to those who earn more than 70 credits a year. This paper presents the one year's trial of the CE activities conducted during April 1993 to March 1994 for the pharmacists working in the Fukushima Medical College Hospital Pharmacy.
The average pharmacists partipated in 64.5 credits of CE activities. The average credits earned by 11 male pharmacists and 11 female pharmacists at our hospital pharmacy were 68.4 and 60.7, respectively. A total of 32%(7/22) of our pharmacists were able to earn 70 credits. No relationship was noted between the credit values earned by the pharmacists and their ages. Sixty-three percent of the total credits earned by the pharmacist were achieved in our hospitalbased and pharmacy-based conferences and 13% of total credits earned by pharmacists was responsible for lectures and studies held out-of-hospital, for example, at meetings sponsored by the branch of the Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists.
It is necessary to encourage all pharmacists to keep up-to-date and improve their knowledge and judgment through CE.
