Pharmaceutical internship training began in 2010; however, there are no studies that focused on the drug treatment on kidney disease during hospital internship training and examined the achievements of hospital internship training by questionnaire survey. We examined the achievements of internship training at our hospital to understand the pharmaceutical students’ comprehension of drug adjustment based on the evaluation of renal function and to ensure better training in future.

A questionnaire survey was completed by 26 interns at our hospital. The results were divided into four groups for analysis as follows: the beginning and end of period 1 (dispensing pharmacy untrained group), and the beginning and end of periods 2 and 3 (dispensing pharmacy trained group). The survey evaluated the degree of understanding regarding “kidney function,” “methods for evaluating renal function when designing a drug treatment,” and knowledge of “drugs that require dosage adjustment depending on renal function.” The students also evaluated their own skills regarding “drug adjustment based on evaluating renal function” (confirmation of laboratory data, dose confirmation, and proposals for prescription modifications).

Although there was no significant increase in the degree of understanding regarding “kidney function,” determining the proper drug dose using the uncorrected estimated glomerular filtration rate (uncorrected eGFRcr) as an understanding degree of the “methods for evaluating renal function when designing a drug treatment” was significantly increased at the end of both the dispensing pharmacy untrained group and the dispensing pharmacy trained group. In addition, regarding the skills related to “drug adjustment based on evaluating renal function”, self-evaluation was higher in hospital internship training than in the dispensing pharmacy training.

Based on these results, hospital internship training was able to improve how well pharmaceutical students understand the “methods for evaluating renal function when designing a drug treatment” and “drugs that require dosage adjustment depending on renal function”. Furthermore, it was possible to successfully practice prescription-checking while considering renal function by displaying signs on dispensing shelves, that warn to appropriate the dose of patients with kidney disease and cards that describe usage/dosage depending on renal function. Going forward, it is our responsibility to equip students with the ability to appropriately evaluate the patients’ renal function and propose safe and effective prescriptions by taking renal function into account.