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.

In Japan, national medical expenses are steadily increasing annually, and the financial burden on patients has followed a similar trend. This burden may contribute to frequent interruptions in prescribed therapeutic regimens. In particular, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, it is important to evaluate regimen efficacy not only from the index of glycemic control but also psychologically, including satisfaction with their treatment. Herein, we examined the relationship between the burden of paying medical expenses and the degree of treatment satisfaction in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. As a result, more than 40% of patients felt burdened with paying medical expenses, this group being younger and paid more than those who did not feel burdened. In addition, the majority of the burdened cohort used injectable preparations and treatment satisfaction scores were also lower in this cohort. From the above findings, it was considered that several factors, such as age, dosage form used, and rate of out-of-pocket expenses were related to the feeling of burden of payment for medical expenses and treatment satisfaction. However, it is often difficult for medical institutions to intervene in these factors. Although the degree of treatment satisfaction can be increased by the attitudes and care of medical staff. The burden reduction associated with being able to pay medical expenses may lead to improvements in the degree of treatment satisfaction.

In this study, a questionnaire survey (Brief Scales for Coping Profile [BSCP]) about coping with stress was administered to pharmacists at 633 pharmacies providing home health care in Aichi Prefecture. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the 18 subscales and six factors of the BSCP for 266 valid responses. We found that pharmacists responded to stress mainly through problem-focused stress coping in home health care. Comparison by attribute revealed that female pharmacists and pharmacists with experience in dealing with terminally ill patients tended to utilize problem-focused and emotion-focused stress coping more flexibly. Younger pharmacists with less work experience tended to focus mainly on emotion-focused stress coping. Pharmacists involved in management and administration were more likely to use problem-focused stress coping, suggesting the need for stress management. Stress management that takes into account coping choices based on attributes is desirable for reducing stress among pharmacists in home health care where interpersonal work is the main focus.

A survey was conducted among event participants in order to better understand the stockpiling status of OTC drugs among the general public and to help identify their needs for OTC drugs. While 76.9% of the respondents stockpiled OTC drugs as one of their specific self-medication practices, only 34.1% of them answered that they practiced self-medication, suggesting the need to inform the public about specific self-medication practices. Many of the OTC drugs listed as stockpiled were drugs used for acute symptoms. In addition, only 23 of the 48 drug groups in the health support pharmacy requirement were stockpiled. Therefore, it can be assumed that the variety of OTC drugs used frequently in self-medication is limited. Although health support pharmacies are required to have OTC drugs in 48 drug groups according to government requirements, if a system is established to provide consultation on OTC drugs, we believe that there is room for reconsideration of installed drugs.