Pharmacy Education Necessary for Pharmacists who has Completed their Vital Signs Training　

Abstract

A number of pharmaceutical colleges have adopted a training program for the vital signs in their 6 year-education curriculum. However, few hospitals or pharmacies carry out vital signs monitoring or physical assessment at present, and graduate pharmacists cannot utilize the techniques that they are skilled in fully. In this study, in order to clarify the situation for implementing vital sign monitoring by pharmacist and what is necessary for pharmacy education, we carried out a web survey for two months, from October 4th to December 3rd, 2012, targeting 1026 pharmacists who attended the vital signs training program hosted by The Japanese Association of Home Care Pharmacies. The Survey item were; (1) basic information of a respondent; (2) situation of homecare conducted by pharmacists; (3) seminar attendance status; (4) vital signs monitoring status after the seminar; (5) hope for future pharmacy education. From the result of the survey, it became clear that over 40% of pharmacists had a chance to perform vital sign monitoring, leading to proper use of medicines. In total, 183 responses to the questions concerning future pharmacy education were obtained from 135 pharmacists and were classified into 11 categories. A request for “a purpose and the significance” was the most common. In the education of pharmacy schools, it is thought that having lectures from on-site pharmacists with an abundance of experience in cases will be effective.