2019 Volume 3 Article ID: 2019-006
Currently, many fifth-year students in the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences are viewed as future “pharmacists close to patients” and “trusted pharmacists”. However, we felt that the students’ attention was focused more on “the medicine” than “the patients” at the start of their clinical practice training. We conducted a 6-day (approximately 40 hours) practical training course on drug therapy at the Fukuoka University Hospital Cranial Nerve Center and examined changes in the students’ patient-oriented attitudes throughout the practical training. Many of the students believed that they could confirm and give guidance concerning the medicine at the beginning of their practical training. It was only at the end of the practical training that the students realized that they could also understand the condition of the patients and evaluate drug therapy. The number of students who realized that understanding the condition of the patients is necessary as a pharmacist increased during the training as they shifted their viewpoint to the patient. According to the revised core curriculum, the goal of practical training is the mastery of “the professional competencies for pharmacists” to acquire the necessary qualifications of a pharmacist. By continuing to conduct interviews and drug therapy evaluations for patients in intractable diseases and brain surgeries during the short training period, the students could change their attitudes towards the patients.
