Pharmacy Education in Selected Countries From The Western Pacific Region Status Quo and Moving Ahead
Pharmacy Education in Selected Countries From The Western Pacific Region Status Quo and Moving Ahead
Pharmacy Education in Selected Countries From The Western Pacific Region Status Quo and Moving Ahead
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Abstract:- The pharmacy profession is dependent on the evolve to provide pharmacists equipped and competent for
nation’s pharmacy education. How the professional such roles. The 2013 FIPEd Global Education Report of
practices and roles are carried out and made available for articulated the need to link pharmacy education with health
the graduates are influenced by the education which needs and national priorities. In order to fulfill such, there
equips them with knowledge, skills, and attitude to be must be a collaboration with key partners such as government
workplace ready. However, pharmacy education is also and national and international pharmacy organizations. To
shaped by the professional practices and roles. The address the global shortage of pharmacist academics and
workplaces can shape education in terms of indicating practice-based supervisors, universities and lawmakers need
demands for jobs and positions. As the roles of to create clear career tracks and trainings to address this need
professional practice is governed by the health care needs [4]. This review is of interest since the region is composed of
of a country, pharmacy education can vary from nation to developed and developing countries with various resources,
nation. The International Pharmaceutical Federation has technology, and population. It would be interesting to
issued a document calling on schools of pharmacy to craft recognize common trends in the pharmacy education and
a program that is responsive to the health care needs of its present existing pharmacy educational landscape that will
country. The Western Pacific Region is an interesting mix allow each country to acquire perspectives of the other,
of developed and developing nations with differences in stimulate collaboration or development. In addition, this
health care system, health care needs, and resources. review aims to let countries see the possibility of forming a
Collaboration and learning opportunities to share best formal cooperation to allow for harmonization of pharmacy
practices is possible in this region to further augment the education for mutual recognition of pharmacy degrees and
education practices to improve professional pharmacy reciprocity of professional practice.
practice in each other’s countries.
II. PHARMACY PROGRAMS IN SELECTED
Keywords:- Pharmacy Curriculum, Pharmacy Education, COUNTRIES
Western Pacific Region.
This review retrieved published articles on the subject
I. INTRODUCTION of pharmacy education from countries in the Western Pacific
Region. The search generated usable articles from American
The World Health Organization reports that the health Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Journal of Asian
systems will only function with health care workers. By Association of Schools of Pharmacy, International Journal of
2030, the low- and lower-middle income countries mostly, Medical Education, and FIP’s Pharmacy Education. The
will need about 18 million health workers [1]. As of March published resources from FIP were also included as they
10, 2022, there are 4.42 pharmacists per 10,000 population in provided insights on initiatives in pharmacy education.
the Western Pacific Region [2]. In a 2017 document by the
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), it mentioned A. Australia
about services that community and hospital pharmacies Admission. Most of the students apply directly from
provide. Community pharmacies may offer services for secondary school but some transfer from other tertiary
improving the use of medicines, product-focused services, programs. The results of the final years of secondary school
primary care and public health services, and other advanced are important basis for acceptance. The country has a unified
services such as home care, repeat dispensing, adjusting year-12 secondary school program and the students complete
prescribed treatment. Hospital pharmacies have provided centrally administered assessment tasks, and the students are
influence on procurement and prescribing, preparation and ranked against one another using a complicated system to
delivery of medicines, monitoring of medicine use, and other maintain equity. The students apply for all university
activities and services such as support to emergency programs through a central agency from which the faculties
departments, antibiotic stewardship, managing medicine- of each university can select from. The scores from
related waste, and clinical trials [3]. In the advent of these Undergraduate Medicine and Allied Health Admission Test
roles, it becomes imperative that pharmacy education should (UMAT) or Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) may
Pharmacy Degrees Available. Technical high schools Looking at the admission guidelines, degrees available,
can train Elementary Diploma (1 year) and Secondary and accreditation processes of selected schools in the Western
Diploma (2 years) in Pharmacy. Colleges can train College Pacific Region, this information are made available and
Diploma in Pharmacy (3 years) but only universities can declared except for Lao PDR where there was no available
award Bachelor of Pharmacy (5 years) and post graduate information on accreditation. Brunei recently offered the
degrees. There is flexibility in schooling to become a pharmacy program and has only one university with such
pharmacist as after 1 year the student can opt to work or program. On the other hand, Singapore’s pharmacy program
continue on to the next level [25]. has been around since 1965 and remains to be the only
pharmacy school in the country. The Philippines has over a
Program Accreditation. The General Department for hundred pharmacy schools being an archipelago, to make the
Educational Quality Assurance, Accreditation, and Testing program available to as many students as possible.
under the Ministry of Education and Training conducts
On admission guidelines, most countries have either a schools. Language proficiency in English is required by
national exam or national guidelines set for the applicants and schools in Cambodia and Malaysia. Brunei and Malaysia
accepting schools to refer to while a few others (Japan and additionally assess the applicants on their fitness to join the
Philippines) have an entrance exam set by the schools. For program.
Mongolia, the applicants with high scores can go to public
schools while those with lower sores have to opt for private
Australia have long veered away from didactic lectures Pharmacy schools in Japan were also affected when
and have adopted the use of technology and had small group their government declared a nationwide state of emergency in
discussion pre-pandemic. The interactive lectures were April 2020. Schools have to make guidelines according to the
maintained as teachers provided recorded lectures embedded Council on Pharmaceutical Education and the government.
with activities and feedback. Students used various platforms Online delivery of classes meant students and teachers had to
such as Google Docs for collaboration. Assessment was in regularly communicate as feedback on this new mode was
the form on online quizzes in the learning management important. Thesis requirement was done at home or if
platform, Objective Structured Clinical Examinations laboratory use was necessary, precautions were in place to
(OSCEs) were either video recording submissions or via avoid infection. To ensure that learning does not stop,
ZOOM with breakout rooms, depending on the station. End- government, universities, and industries collaborated to
semester-exams were amended to make them suitable for create a framework that will allow the use of copyrighted