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Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Japan is about to become an ultra-aged society. The pharmacist needs, of course, to have the knowledge and skills of a medicines specialist, but will also be asked to play a wide range of roles that conventional curriculum knowledge education could not provide, including providing guidance for self-medication guidance, knowledge of and responsive skills for nursing care, home-care medicine, and other welfare programs, and for preventive medicine based on improved lifestyle habits and nutrition, and giving advice for supplements and beauty aid cosmetics.
Josai International University's Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science has developed an education program responsive to today's needs, and aims for development of pharmacists capable of a wide range of activities.
Why the change to a six-year program?
The role of pharmacists is expected to become increasingly important in the medical establishment of the future. The work will not merely be limited to preparation of medicines, but will extend to giving guidance about medicinal prescriptions, managing patient prescription records, and communicating with doctors and patients. In today's medical environment, the demand is for "team medicine" involving cooperation with doctors and nurses, and quality pharmacists are in demand who can give opinions as medical experts on what drug treatment methods are appropriate. This demand applies not only to hospitals and pharmacies, but even to drug stores, where the pharmacist needs to demonstrate wide-ranging expertise, such as offering suitable advice to customers on the effectiveness or secondary effects of health supplements, etc.
Meeting these demands by society requires both a technical education and a practical education, and the existing four-year curriculum program was not considered adequate. For this reason, we extended the curriculum by an additional two years, to create a six-year program.
How will extending the curriculum by two years change the education content?
Pharmaceutical studies consists of learning about drug treatments for people. It is a extension of medical pharmaceutical treatment education, and involves internalizing knowledge that can be used to determine "what kind of drugs should be used" for a given patient.
This is expansion of general education, deepening understanding of people and nurturing ethical understanding as medical personnel. With increased opportunities for contact with patients in medical situations, the goal is to develop communication skills and nurture human understanding.
The biggest difference with the four-year program is the major expansion in practical work training. In the four-year program, the practical training consisted of two to four weeks. Under the new six-year curriculum, this has been expanded to about 24 weeks (five to six months). Participants gain experience at hospitals and pharmacies, and acquire the knowledge needed to be pharmacists.
