2023 Volume 15 Issue 1 Pages 20-35
A questionnaire survey was administered to approximately 300 pharmacists with the aim of identifying the qualities that pharmacists need to be involved in healthcare issues. A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted on two groups according to length of service, place of work, etc. The most frequently reported required qualities were expert knowledge of medicines for 235 out of 307 (76.5%) participants and knowledge of the content of medical issues for 233 out of 307 (75.9%) participants. Approximately 206 out of 307 (67.1%) pharmacists reported hoping that opportunities provided by the pharmacy association would help them to acquire necessary qualities. Important qualities that need to be developed in undergraduate education were reported to be knowledge of medical issues (219 out of 311 (70.4%)) and the ability to communicate with patients and consumers, while most respondents answered that having the opportunity to develop such qualities in hands-on training in a medical setting was the most important factor. Based on these results, it is clear that an education based on medical practice is necessary to develop pharmacists who can work on solving medical issues. However, the evaluation and verification of the content of practical training has not been fully implemented; thus, it is necessary to evaluate and verify these factors in the future.
