A retrospective evaluation of the need for English education by hospital and community pharmacists

Abstract

With globalization, many pharmacists in Japan have found it necessary to have a good command of English for their work, making English education at universities increasingly important. However, the problem is that many pharmacists are not confident in using English, as some studies have already shown. We conducted an online questionnaire survey, with the aims to investigate: 1) the present need for English in a pharmacist’s work, 2) what English education pharmacists received in university, and 3) what English is necessary for future pharmacists. Data were collected from 120 pharmacists in hospitals and 120 from those in community pharmacies. One of the main findings was that there was a difference in the need for English between hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists, which could be attributed to whether they did research or not. At the same time, the findings offered some beneficial suggestions for English educators in pharmaceutical universities to motivate their students to study English.