The Japan Society for Pharmaceutical Education (hereafter referred to as the Society) was established in 2016 and approved as a general incorporated association, assuming social responsibility as a corporate body in September 2018. Although the Society’s activities have improved every year, evaluation and verification of pharmaceutical education and efforts from an international perspective have not been sufficient. Therefore, it is imperative to promote such efforts to enhance and develop “pharmaceutical education and pharmacist education” in Japan. With this background in mind, the Society established the Internationalization Committee (hereafter referred to as the Committee) in October 2021 to revitalize its international activities.

This study reviews the pharmacy education systems of Canada, the United States of America, and England, which are countries renowned for their advanced curriculum of clinical pharmacy education. Information was collected mainly from the home pages of each pharmacy school and in part through personal communications with some academic staff of the school, including general information on the pharmacy education system in the context of post-secondary education system, admission to pharmacy schools, curriculum of course work and experiential education, careers of faculty members, and graduate school system. In addition, as pharmacy education in a country is closely related with the competence of pharmacists in the country, the latter was also reviewed as background information. Based on the comparative review and analysis of the collected information, points useful to improve and further develop pharmacy education in Japan is discussed.

Advancements in modern medical care have required medical teams, including doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, to undergo specialized training. We have found that pre-practical training on therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is one of the areas in which pharmacists can gain expertise. We developed and tested an educational program to provide training on TDM in community pharmacies, rather than hospitals, where TDM is often implemented. We investigated the educational effects of the program using a questionnaire administered to the students. The results of the questionnaire revealed that the TDM case studies were useful for the majority of students (>80%) and showed high learning efficiency compared with lectures. We focused on precision medicine based on pharmacogenomics (PGx), as this field has recently attracted much attention. The results of the questionnaire indicated that the educational program was highly effective at teaching the application of PGx for treatment decisions.

In Japan, where education is being reformed toward the realization of a digital society, deeper discussions on ICT literacy education for pharmacists are needed. With a shift of pharmacist duties from objects to persons, the introduction and utilization of information and communication technology for pharmacists/pharmacists (specifically, that for pharmacies is called pharmaceutical technology: Pharma Tech) have become indispensable for better health outcomes, health services, and patient convenience. Pharmacists as health professionals are now expected not only to appropriately use Pharma Tech, but also to utilize it with an awareness of user experience (UX) design for patients. However, in current ICT literacy education for pharmacists, such an awareness is rarely observed. Therefore, it may be important to incorporate ICT literacy education into existing subjects, such as combining therapy applications with pharmacology and pathophysiology, information security with relevant laws and regulations, social networking with communication studies, and Pharma Tech with pharmaceutics, and provide it in these combinations through industry-academia collaboration.

University teaching is a rewarding profession with high individual discretion, burden, and autonomy. However, there are many operations where it is difficult to separate work and life. Difficulties may arise when life events such as marriage, childbirth, childcare, and nursing care occur. Although there should be no difference in how life events affect men and women, the number of female researchers leaving their jobs is relatively high. We organized this symposium because we believe that the first step is to identify the causes and conflicts that make it difficult for people to continue working. The purpose of this symposium was to share information and encourage discussion about life events and difficulties in continuing to work, focusing on childcare. In this review, we report on the symposium’s content, the results of the post-symposium questionnaire, and an overview of the ongoing qualitative study on “continuing to work.”

In recent years, the number of pharmacy schools has been increasing, and the number of students has been decreasing, thereby increasing the dropout and retention rates in some schools. Therefore, we examined learning outcomes for the purpose of optimal remedial and supplementary education. First, I examined the impact of student characteristics on learning outcomes in each learning strategy. Two strategies were implemented in the study: a problem practice strategy, and a lecture-style supplementary education strategy using videos of prior learning. The learning effects of these strategies were then verified. The results show that in the practice strategy, non-attendees achieve higher grades than the attendees in the middle group (group 2); and in the strategy using videos, the attendees in the supplementary course achieve higher grades than the non-attendees in the middle and lower groups (group 3). The second is the development of a learning strategy utilizing gamification. We created a game of structural formula called “Karuta” in the hope that it would encourage collaborative learning among students, while focusing on chemical structural equations. We then designed and implemented a learning strategy using the Karuta and evaluated the learning outcomes. Our findings show that the effects of learning differed, depending on the characteristics of the students.

In the 6-year pharmaceutical science course, training pharmacists with superior qualities and abilities is highly desirable. Research activities are not only useful in the creation of evidence to contribute to the development of medical care, but they also help to develop a wide range of skills pharmacists require. Our investigation indicates that, although there was a direct correlation between the duration of research in the laboratory at university and graduate school, and research experience gained in most instances, those who completed the 6-year pharmaceutical sciences course tended to have less experience than those who completed a combination of the 4-year degree and subsequent master’s course. To help efficient and significant research activities mainly for pharmacists who have less experience in clinical research, we have introduced and used an originally developed report on the progress of clinical research to routinely revise the significance and theme direction. For the purpose of training pharmacists who demonstrate high clinical performance, furthermore, of development of pharmacological therapy, it is important to provide an opportunity for both students in pharmaceutical sciences course and pharmacists to actively engage in research, regardless of whether it is basic or clinical.

“Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy Education—2015 version—” requires student pharmacists to describe basic life support procedures (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, trauma life support, etc. (BLS)) and to be able to perform it using a simulator. The PUSH course has attracted attention in recent years as a hands-on BLS training with little difficulty in a short time, and is therefore considered appropriate for use with introductory pharmacy education. In this review, we will introduce the practical examples of PUSH course for pharmacy students and change in their attitudes before and after the course as well as some cases of BLS involving community pharmacy, with understanding of the essential basic knowledge and skills in sudden cardiac death and BLS, and also discuss what is the role pharmacists would play in the future.

The importance of evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been recognized in pharmaceutical education in Japan, and EBM is clearly stated as a component of the revised-model core curriculum for this specialty. However, there is currently insufficient training to enable students to acquire EBM skills that may be applied to patient care. To implement effective EBM education, we believe that instruction should alternate between university and clinical settings. For this purpose, pharmacists should generate and disseminate evidence from clinical sites, including community pharmacies and hospitals. Based on the philosophy of using an academic detailing educational approach, universities should aim to optimize medication management through educational activities that bridge the gap between basic science and clinical practice. In addition, clinical-practice-related training, such as the creation of formularies, is desirable. In the United States, EBM education is embedded throughout the pharmacy degree program, from fundamental education to practical training. Therefore, such strategies can be incorporated into Japanese educational programs in the near future.

Regulatory Science is known as a science which harmonizes the latest science and technology with human society through scientific regulation. Therefore, the regulatory science is a science field related with the society activity. It is difficult for student of the school of pharmacy who has not had an experience of the social activity to understand the concept of the regulatory science from the knowledge of the regular lectures. Moreover, the lecture of the regulatory science alone is not enough for students to expect learning effects because the regulatory science relates with other lectures, such as pharmacology, toxicology, hygiene chemistry, drug information, the regulation of pharmaceutical affairs, etc. Three pharmaceutical researchers of the regulatory science described their opinion and/or the practice of the education of the regulatory science, such as the discussion points in the education of school of pharmacy from the regulatory science perspective, the introduction of the educational method based on the relationship between the clinical training and the regulatory science, and how to encourage the advantage of regulatory science for the pharmacist and the pharmaceutical scientist, in this review article.

The “Guideline for Practical Training for Pharmacy and Hospital” states to universities that “it is essential to forward relevant information regarding the contents and progress of the learning at universities in advance to the training facilities prior to the initiation of the practical training.” Approximately 2,400 medical students from 14 universities in the Kinki region are allocated to training facilities in the entire Kinki region every year. These training facilities accept students from different universities. Providing achievements assessed according to each university’s criteria would cause confusion at the training facilities. Therefore, the Kinki Regional Allocation Office promulgated that the training practice would be optimized smoothly according to students’ accomplishment level by evaluating and presenting their learning progress using the unified assessment standards at the training facilities. The Office also expected that formulating the unified assessment standards would contribute to the review of the pedagogy and learning materials of preparatory clinical education at the universities. Here, the circumstances of the formulation and application of “the Kinki region’s summarized assessment chart for preparatory clinical education” are discussed.

Since 2016 academic year, we have been conducting cross-disciplinary practical training to bridge the gap between basic scientific skills and practical abilities in pharmacotherapy. In the pre-study of practical training in the fourth year, medicinal chemistry faculty and clinical pharmacy faculty members collaborate to provide bridging education. In this symposium review, we introduce the outline of the experiential education on the subject of pharmaceutical compounding changes and the evaluation of the students. In addition, we describe our future evaluation plan using the proposed outcomes of the Kinki region’s summarized assessment chart for preparatory clinical education.

In pharmacy education, there is a need to train pharmacists to practice evidence-based medicine (EBM) by evaluating drug information, including primary sources, and providing optimal medical care based on patient information. At Osaka University of Pharmaceutical Sciences (currently Faculty of Pharmacy, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University), team-based learning is conducted in the fourth year so that students can practice EBM in practical training. In 2020, due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the content of the practice was reduced from that of 2019. In this symposium review, to report the educational effectiveness of this practice, we examined the comprehension tests conducted pre and post the tests for each year. In addition, we will evaluate the learning content in EBM practice using the Kinki region’s summarized assessment chart for preparatory clinical education.

Society is made up of a mixture of people with different ways of thinking and behavior. When people with different ways of recognizing the environment and the habit of thinking are involved, friction often arises from the difference in “common sense” that each has. In the long-term practical training, many students stay in the “community of workplace” for 11 weeks. Their interest and the action style are various, and when it meets the student who has the individuality which deeds the range of pharmacist’s “It should be so and it should be so”, it becomes trouble. In hospitals, problems are likely to occur when students, such as ward training, receive long-term guidance from a specific pharmacist. The combination of students and supervising pharmacists is important because there are various ways to proceed with work and what is important depending on the pharmacist in charge. In this review, practical training that many pharmacists have “troubled” experience as a subject to think about measures for various human beings to recognize each other and collaborate.

Pharmacist instructors sometimes have difficulty understanding what pharmaceutical trainees say and their behavior during clinical training in hospitals or pharmacies. Why it is difficult for instructors to understand TRAINEEs? The author consider that the problems can be divided into three main categories: related to knowledge and skills, attitudes and behavioral characteristics, and personality and way of thinking. I also notice that communication gaps are not often caused by knowledge and skills. It is strongly related to management skills and considerations for personality or ways of thinking. However, for some reasons it is difficult for instructor pharmacist to study management skills systematically, although much of the scholarship on human management and attitude has been systematized. And they also have not experienced the appropriate tool to understand personality and way of thinking, such as MBTI®, FFM, and Strength Finder, etc. Of course, it is important for pharmacists to maintain their unique specialty but developing other skills are also more important because it will be relevant not only to communicating with trainees but also various stakeholders such as medical staffs and patients.

Recently, a need has been recognized for pharmacists to be able to offer optimal prescriptions and practice pharmacotherapy in collaboration with other medical professionals. This paper reports on a practical training initiative and its associated challenges conducted at Osaka Prefecture Saiseikai Noe Hospital (hereinafter, “the hospital”). This initiative is an example of clinical education in medium-sized hospitals. The hospital was able to (1) include pharmacists in information-sharing programs with specialists, such as in a conference on cardiac failure, and in team-based care, such as in AST, RCT, and NST, to deal with eight typical diseases. It was also possible to (2) train pharmacists to interact with other medical professionals, exchanging opinions with doctors and nurses and playing an active role in the clinical environment in participatory and experiential training programs for outpatient care, within contexts such as emergency and cardiac outpatients. It is a particular challenge that pharmacists, despite playing a leading role, have few practical opportunities to receive the above education. Thus, in the physical assessment training course conducted in collaboration with Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, (3) the hospital aims to support training pharmacists to be able to use the physical examination of patients for pharmaceutical management and to employ pharmacotherapy proactively.

In recent years, as the role of pharmacists has transformed from a simple pharmaceutical supply service to a specialized patient-focused service involving aspects of the medication, and pharmacists are required to have the ability to comprehend patients’ conditions. In this review, the available programs on pharmacist’s education for the optimal prediction of patient’s conditions in Kyoto Pharmaceutical University will be presented as well as my personal views on the physical assessment required of pharmacists in the future. In Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, undergraduate education involves physical assessment education to enables understanding of the normal physiological state in the second year “anatomy and physiology laboratory” course and physical assessment education to better identify the patients’ medical condition and its suitable pharmacotherapy in the fourth year “prepharmacy practice” course. Furthermore, the “Physical Assessment Course” is offered as continuous and life-long education for pharmacists that completed the former four-year system of pharmacy education, in which physical assessment education is provided. Finally, as a faculty member involved in physical assessment education, I consider that the purpose of physical assessment carried out by pharmacists should always be considered essential.

Learning about intensive care is well recognized as an important element of pharmaceutical studies, yet few organizations provide pharmacy students with practical training in this field. This training is, nevertheless, essential for all pharmacy students as it includes the pharmacological management of patients requiring intensive care and those discharged from the intensive care unit. Our hospital provides a two-day practical training program in intensive care, including lectures and small group discussions. The practical training at our hospital contributes to learning about pharmacotherapy for sepsis and organ system assessment, and may encourage trainees to develop an interest in working as a pharmacist in the field of intensive care. Furthermore, because the need for intensive care pharmacy services is recognized by pharmacy students regardless of their practical training experience in intensive care, there is a high demand for learning opportunities in this field. Therefore, we will further enhance the content of student training and continue the post-graduate education program in intensive care in order to train and prepare prospective pharmacists to be able to effectively assist critically ill patients.

“Active learning” is a process in which learners seek their own answers. To perform clinical training based on active learning, we need guidance to motivate the trainees. It is important to work on trainees’ independence by putting forth questions such as: “What kind of pharmacist do you want to be?” “What are you prepared to study for a lifetime as a medical professional?” “How do you plan to support the community?” “What can you do now?” In the pharmacy practice at the Toyooka Public Hospital Association, we have created opportunities to talk with many cancer patients. We have also conducted clinical training that incorporated active learning. We will hear from people who have just been diagnosed with cancer, are on anti-cancer drug treatment, have switched to homecare, and are close to the caregiver. During the training period, I will explain what is happening in the field and how I felt while studying at the university. Based on what I learned at the university, it is important to acquire the abilities and habits to solve problems from an early stage by actively incorporating new knowledge and skills. This will lead to the development of awareness as a medical professional. It is important for universities, hospitals, pharmacies, and pharmacy students to share educational indicators and work on them. I believe that by incorporating active learning process, we can give high quality training to next-generation pharmacists.

Emergency medicine and critical care are defined as advanced and specialist fields for clinical experience for a pharmacy student in Japan. Active involvement of pharmacists in patient treatment in emergency medicine and intensive care units has been shown to lead to better clinical outcomes for critically ill patients. Critically ill and emergency patients experience ongoing changes in their organ function, hemodynamics, and pharmacokinetics, and it is therefore difficult to predict their condition. Emergency and critical care pharmacists must therefore keep assessing patients’ condition and if necessary, intervene aggressively. During their clinical experience, pharmacy students discuss the provision of pharmacy services in emergency medicine, and learn about the importance of evaluating pharmacy services. We teach pharmacy students the principles of working as a critical care pharmacist during their clinical experience in intensive care units. We encourage students to take responsibility for the drug treatment plans they develop. We also teach them to recognize each patient’s unique clinical concerns and problems, and develop ways to address these issues. To cultivate the next generation of pharmacist leaders, we encourage pharmacy students to focus on assessing patients and empowering them to deliver aggressive interventions where necessary.

The revised model core curriculum for pharmacy education in 2013 was presented as a curriculum that aimed at fostering professional pharmacists in the 6-year pharmacy education. The effective implementation of the important revision perspectives was considered. Regarding outcome-based education, the goals of the abilities that pharmacists should acquire are unclear in the description of the general instructional and specific behavioral objectives. Pharmacy practical training that students can really experience and minimum medical conditions have been understood and are widespread, however, many challenges existed, such as the improvement of the clinical practical abilities of students. I believe that presenting a consistent educational evaluation is necessary up to the time of graduation in pharmacy education. Therefore, I discuss the direction of the model core curriculum that will be revised in the future.

When disaster strikes, everyone is a party to the situation, and emergency response is required. It is not enough to learn disaster response skills after encountering a disaster. All medical professionals must acquire the ability to respond to disasters as a “second specialty”. Furthermore, the spread of COVID-19 has changed the status of “disaster medicine” and the educational environment. We are now required to have the ability to respond comprehensively to different targets, such as natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases, as well as to “complex disasters” in which natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases occur simultaneously. Disaster medicine is not to be learned as a subspecialty of each field, but as a “second specialty” that must be learned in an integrated manner. This will enable appropriate responses to health crises arising from all types of emergencies. First, educators themselves must acquire the ability to respond to disasters as a second specialty. If this is not possible, efforts should be made to connect the learner with the appropriate educator.

While Japan is a small country, however throughout the year it experiences many natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, tsunami, landslides, heavy snowfall, volcanic eruptions, extreme heat, and cold weather. Especially, earthquakes occur almost every day somewhere in Japan. A characteristic of recent natural disasters is that once they occur, they become widespread and make life inconvenient. In addition to natural disasters, Japan has also experienced a man-made disaster, a chemical weapon attack with sarin gas. From the perspective of educating pharmacy students, it seems that educators have a lot more to learn about these disasters. In the current education curriculum model for pharmacy students, there are not enough SBOs on disaster medical care the strategy depends on each university. The authors think that there are various possible reasons why disaster medicine education in the faculty of pharmacy is not progressing to date. It is our belief that one major reason is that there are few faculty members who are familiar with disaster medical care. On the other hand, what can be taught/what can we teach “from now on” in order to discharge pharmacists who can play an active role in the event of a large-scale disaster and also contribute to maintaining the health of victims. Therefore, we planned a questionnaire survey on the learning needs of pharmacy students and demanded by the pharmacists.

The faculty of pharmacy should educate pharmacists who have played an important role in medical support in recent mass disasters. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, there are great expectations for pharmacists’ disaster response as well as the demand for medicines at disaster sites. In the recent transformation of the pharmacy education system, SBOs that educate the role of pharmacists in the event of a disaster have been included in the pharmaceutical education model core curriculum. At present, many universities are in charge of disaster education at the faculty of pharmacy by pharmacists who have experience in dealing with disasters. In the future, it will be essential to faculty develop disaster medicine as a systematic discipline in pharmaceutical education. Many pharmacists who have participated in disaster medical support so far have solved many problems in response to disasters, and it will be important to practice thinking about problem-solving methods as a lesson of disaster pharmaceutics.

With growing social needs and interest in disaster medicine in recent years, it is desired to enhance the field of disaster medicine in pharmacy education. Therefore, we are trying to build a new course of pharmaceutical disaster medicine that will be learned over multiple grades in Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. In our university, we have taken the initiative in active learning such as group work and role-playing from the first grade. We have specifically been practicing primary triage and mission games using transceivers in workshops that train disaster medical professionals. These education contents focus on exercises related to emergency lifesaving and disaster medicine. Furthermore, in 2021, we planned new practical exercise for infectious diseases such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), on the theme of “The role of pharmacists in the pandemic of emerging infectious diseases.” Since our university does not have an affiliated hospital, we combine compulsory courses with some elective classes to meet the learning needs of disaster medicine. In the future, we will combine a course of disaster medical training conducted by academic societies and promote further education of pharmaceutical disaster medicine with the aim to develop pharmacists who can play an active role in disasters.

Online education, bolstered by the spread of COVID-19, has provided a new educational option. First, however, student evaluation of online education must be carefully studied and analyzed. In this study, a questionnaire was given to first to fourth-year students of the Setsunan University Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences who had experienced online and face-to-face classes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the 2020 academic year. The purpose was to investigate their evaluation of online classes in general terms, not limited to specific subjects or grades. The questionnaire was conducted in March 2021 using a Google form anonymously, with 123 (53%), 128 (62%), 90 (41%), and 62 (29%) responses obtained from first to fourth-year students, respectively. The results revealed that the pharmacy students’ overall evaluation of the online classes differed greatly depending on the learning domain, particularly the knowledge domain. The results also suggested higher support and self-efficacy for online learning than face-to-face classes. In the future, it will be necessary to consider lesson designs, including online lessons, that are optimized for the learning domain, objectives, and learner attributes.

We previously reported on the usefulness of our team-based learning (TBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) exercise program for training pharmacists to conduct social research studies through appropriate measurement and statistical analysis, through a quantitative study. In this study, we conducted a mixed study with qualitative research to evaluate the learning process experienced by students in these exercises in depth. For each of the five groups of students classified in the previously reported quantitative analysis, the written comments on the exercise were analyzed using Steps for Coding and Theorization (SCAT) to generate story lines and theoretical descriptions. The results revealed that students engaged in diverse active learning according to their position, existing knowledge, and abilities, suggesting differences in students’ learning process, efforts, and learning even among the groups showing the same quantitative trend, and that they obtained satisfaction that was not revealed by quantitative research alone. Furthermore, these results indicate that mixed methods may be a solution to issues that quantitative studies cannot clarify in the verification of educational outcomes.

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Fukuoka University examined the effects of a remedial biology course provided to first-year pharmacy students after program admission in 2014. The academic results of students who had enrolled in the program and took the 105th National Examination for Pharmacists were tracked throughout the six years. After one semester, the results showed no difference in biology test results between students who took the remedial course and those who did not need to take it. The course closed the academic gap observed after the placement test at the time of admission and maintained those results up to the participants’ graduation. A questionnaire, also given to participants, revealed an improvement in students’ understanding of biology despite 65% of the respondents initially struggling with biology before taking the remedial course. In addition, the pass rate for the 105th National Exam was higher among the course participants than for those who did not take the course. This study suggested that early intervention with the remedial course improved and maintained student motivation until graduation.

The revised Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy Education introduced ten professional competencies required of pharmacists upon graduating from a 6-year pharmacy program. However, it is unclear whether they improved upon these competencies after graduation. In this study, a questionnaire assessed 517 graduates on improving these competencies during their careers in the medical setting. The respondents had registered their e-mail addresses previously with the Faculty of Pharmacy’s alumni association at Osaka Ohtani University. The online survey was anonymous and included 15 multiple-choice questions related to the ten competencies. The response rate was 22.2%, with the male/female ratio and years of experience as a pharmacist of the responders relatively equal. The self-evaluation of community pharmacists showed significantly higher scores for “professionalism” and “community health and medical care” compared to those of “interprofessional team-care” and “research,” which were significantly lower than that of hospital pharmacists. In conclusion, there were large disparities in the improvement level of the ten competencies, with “research” the most difficult area to improve on even for pharmacy specialists working at healthcare facilities.

The use of healthcare ICT by pharmacists (called “Pharma Tech” for pharmacies) will be essential in the future for improving health outcomes, enhancing healthcare services, and increasing convenience for patients. However, the ICT literacy of pharmacists and pharmacy students must improve for the utilization of Pharma Tech. Therefore, the syllabi of pharmacy departments (77 universities, 79 faculties) that were open to the public from March 2021 were examined for this study. The survey items included the course title, affiliation and specialization of the instructor, course year, class format, general instructive objectives/specific behavioral objectives, and learning evaluation. The percentage of ICT courses offered by the faculty of pharmacies was highest in the first year with basic content, close to the time of the entrance orientation. On the other hand, only 5.9% of classes offered had clinical application, such as improving healthcare outcomes and services with ICT. This result may be attributed partly to the low number of ICT courses provided to the higher grades and the low percentage of teachers (11.8%) with clinical experience required for those courses.

The Faculty of Pharmacy at Musashino University held mock examinations for sixth-year students a total of six times during September–February, using the same format as that for the national examination for pharmacists. Cluster analysis used three years of data (2017–2019) to investigate the changes in the total exam scores for each subject. The analysis results showed that score changes could be classified into upper, middle, and lower groups. Each group composition differed depending on the subject. In addition, all subjects showed a correlation with the overall total. Multiple logistic regression analysis was also conducted to ascertain if future pass rates of certain subjects could be identified at a specific point in time. The results of the analysis suggested that in multiple subjects, including pharmacology, early-stage exam achievement positively influenced the performance on the national examination. These findings will be helpful to predict academic achievement based on early-stage examination results and develop student guidance and learning strategies to prepare for the national examination.

This study investigated the relationship between self-efficacy, achievement emotions, and learning strategies using Control-Value Theory for pharmacy students learning Pharmacy English. A questionnaire was conducted with items from Ikeda’s Achievement Emotion Scale Japanese version and modified items from Mori’s Self-efficacy Scale for English Learning. Based on a factor analysis of the items created with Mori’s English Learning Usage Strategy Scale, four categories were classified as guessing strategy, understanding strategy, working strategy, and contemplation strategy. The results of correlation analysis showed that “enjoyment/hope/pride” (positive achievement emotions) positively correlated with self-efficacy and learning strategies, as shown in previous studies. In addition, a significant positive correlation between “anger” (negative achievement emotion) and “hope/pride” and a significant positive correlation between “anger” and contemplation strategy emerged as new findings.

Objective: During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a shift from face-to-face to online lectures. This study investigated the relationship between examination scores and the submissions of lecture-related homework assignments to evaluate student time management. Methods: The 139 participants were third-year pharmacy students who received seven Pharmacotherapeutics II lectures on-demand from September to November 2020. They were classified into three groups based on the time of assignment submission as a submission on the day of lecture (“early” n = 42), up to the day before the deadline (“intermediate” n = 58), and on the deadline day (“late” n = 39). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and multivariate regression analysis were used to determine the influence of homework submission times on examination scores. Results: The analysis showed that examination scores were negatively impacted by late submission. Students who submitted their assignments soon after the lectures had higher exam scores, while those who submitted them later had lower scores. Conclusion: The results suggested that some pharmacy students may have poor time management and a tendency toward academic procrastination with on-demand classes, directly affecting their exam scores. Therefore, faculty must communicate with online students about time management in submitting homework assignments soon after lectures and monitor student progress throughout the course.

Pharmaceutical colleges struggle with inadequate instruction in disaster medicine, making it difficult to determine how much students understand of the educational content. Therefore, this study collected and qualitatively analyzed data with text mining to visually grasp student responses. With text mining, the students’ personal descriptions were converted into text data, creating keyword lists and concept maps to visualize the degree of comprehension and knowledge. By analyzing the relevant keywords from the concept maps, it was possible to gain an overview of the students’ understanding and develop a tool to facilitate disaster medicine in pharmaceutical education. The visualization of qualitative data using text mining was a useful method for examining the comprehension levels of pharmacy students.

Vaccines and immunizations are expected to contain or control pandemics caused by infectious diseases. Therefore, it is essential to create a system that can supply prompt and stable vaccinations to people who wish to be vaccinated. However, securing human resources to provide vaccinations is a problem in Japan. In Europe and the United States, pharmacists play a role as vaccination providers, so someday pharmacists in Japan may also contribute in this way. With this background, practical training using an attachable brachial muscle injection simulator was provided to fourth-year undergraduate students and verified its effectiveness. Compared to before the practice, students’ knowledge and skill of intramuscular injection improved, and students were satisfied with how the training increased their confidence and self-efficacy. In addition, many students developed positive consciousness and responded that knowledge and skills for intramuscular injection would be helpful in the future and should be learned at university. These results suggest that practical training using a muscle injection simulator is beneficial in undergraduate education.

Students can improve their learning by reviewing the basic courses and understanding how it relates to the pre-clinical training content. Therefore, the team-based learning (TBL) strategy was introduced to help students organize and apply the relevant knowledge of chemical compounding to the practical training. A factor analysis and cluster analysis were conducted on the questionnaires given after the class. The results indicated that students who were not initially confident in their knowledge of clinically relevant chemistry felt that they could understand the related contents in the practical training through the TBL experience. This study suggests that the combination of TBL and practical training may enhance learning by connecting the prior knowledge of chemistry to clinical practice.

In this study, an evidence-based medicine (EBM) workshop using the team-based learning (TBL) was conducted to verify the effectiveness of joint learning for fourth-year students who had completed their pre-clinical training and fifth-year students who had completed their clinical training. The learning outcomes were assessed with a knowledge acquisition test, administered at the time of the workshop and two months later, and a post-workshop questionnaire. The participants’ literature-based evaluation skills remained unchanged two months after the workshop. However, the fifth-year students had higher mean test scores than the fourth-year students, both at the time of the workshop and two months later. In addition, the questionnaire results revealed that fifth-year participants rated teamwork and the need for EBM higher than fourth-year participants, which may be due to increased awareness of the need for EBM during clinical practice. The workshop was effective in improving skills related to EBM and enhancing student awareness of the need for EBM.

This study sought to clarify the relationship between the learning motivation of pharmacy students to study pharmaceutical laws and their occupations of interest. A questionnaire was administered to fourth-year students in the six-year and four-year programs at the Kitasato University School of Pharmacy. A factor analysis used 246 valid responses, and factor scores calculated for each respondent were used for cluster analysis. A quantitative textual analysis was also conducted using data from a free-response question on the occupations that respondents were interested in at the time of the investigation. The results suggested that students in the four-year program had lower learning motivation than students in the six-year program did and that they did not feel the need to acquire knowledge on pharmaceutical laws. It was suggested that, among students in the six-year program, students interested in becoming a pharmacist at a hospital or a community pharmacy had higher learning motivation. Furthermore, it was suggested that among students in the four-year program, those interested in research and development jobs did not feel the need to acquire knowledge on pharmaceutical laws.

To improve communication skills in the “Human Communication” course at Teikyo University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, an “experiential learning to raise awareness” program was introduced to first-year pharmacy students. Factor analysis of student’s self-evaluation of communication conducted after class extracted three factors: “interest in the other person,” “sociality,” and “communication.” Students were divided into three clusters via cluster analysis. The descriptions on the reflection sheets and self-evaluation of communication were then analyzed in each cluster. The analyses revealed that Cluster 1 realized the importance of caring for others and tried to apply what they learned to future scenarios. Cluster 2 recognized the difficulty of communication and the impact of their attitudes to listening. Finally, Cluster 3 understood the necessity of interacting with others. The results indicated that many students learned the importance of listening to others with interest through this communication program.

Ethical values in pharmacists are fostered during the six-year pharmacy program and after graduation through learning and practice. Small group seminars for second-year pharmacy students at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences aimed to promote medical professionalism through active learning. Lectures included faculty-developed videos based on ethical issues faced by pharmacists in their daily work. These videos were “patients reluctant to adjust leftover medication,” “family members with juvenile dementia,” and “underutilization of medical questionnaires and medication registers.” Through these videos, students could understand each patient’s situation more concretely, accept the patient’s values, and devise solutions to encourage the patient’s self-determination. In addition, students shared diverse ideas and viewpoints in the group work and communication with peers. The results of this active learning method suggested the lectures were effective as an introductory model for practical clinical ethics education.

An increasing number of young people are using marijuana out of curiosity. Surveys have been conducted on university student attitudes towards marijuana and drug use. Still, there is a lack of research on awareness of cannabidiol (CBD) products as types of cannabis are increasingly more diverse. This study surveyed pharmacy students’ awareness of marijuana and CBD products. The results showed that while the understanding of marijuana’s illegality was high, recognition of CBD products was low, and the participants vaguely perceived these products as similar to marijuana. The participants identified the following actions they should take regarding marijuana and CBD products: acquiring and sharing correct information, rejecting abuse and recommendation of illegal drugs, actively learning about the pharmacy profession, handling drugs as a pharmacy professional, and understanding more about the medical uses and risks of cannabis. The results suggested that pharmacy schools must provide general guidance on drug abuse prevention through specialized content in addition to social and legal norms and incorporate it into the students’ visions of their future pharmacy profession.

A Questionnaire survey was conducted on the participants of the “Physical Assessment Course (Advanced Course)” before and after the course to verify the change in their understanding of physical assessment (PA). Additionally, a followup survey was conducted to clarify the PA implementation status after the course. The results showed a significantly improved understanding of the vital sign measurement technique in all items in 15 participants. In the followup survey, 13 of the 15 participants responded, and 4 participants (31%) conducted PA on patients, with “general inspection” and “blood pressure assessment” as the most commonly performed procedures. Three of the four participants stated their involvement in “side effect prevention” in terms of their proper use of drugs. Meanwhile, the main reasons for the 9 (69%) participants who were unable to conduct PA were “not in an environment where PA can be conducted” or “no patients for conducted of PA.” These results suggested that this course has certain educational effectiveness with pharmacists’ PA and approximately 30% of the participants conducted PA after the course.

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is a valuable tool for facilitating precision medicine approaches to pharmacotherapy and is emphasized in the revised model of the core curriculum. However, pharmacy students are educated on PGx mainly through classroom lectures, with few attempts to implement it in nationwide pre-clinical training. The educational impact of PGx training was investigated with fourth-year pharmacy students at Ritsumeikan University. Questionnaires were conducted before and after the therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) training to investigate the effect of the PGx training program on student comprehension. The results showed that the training improved understanding of the term PGx (P < 0.01). Furthermore, the number of correct answers to prescription drug design questions based on gene polymorphism significantly increased following the training (P < 0.01). Awareness of the importance of proposing drug therapy based on gene polymorphisms also significantly increased (P < 0.01), supporting the usefulness of the PGx training program during pre-clinical training.