Re: Health Professions Education in Oman : A Contemporary Perspective = رد : تعليم المهن الصحية في سلطنة عمان : منظور معاصر

Abstract

Sir, I read with interest the article by Dr. Ritu Lakhtakia,1 which appeared in your November 2012 issue. I would like to draw the attention of the author and other readers to a very important omission—the training in Oman of pharmacists and clinical pharmacists. The first Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) programme was started in the fall of 2003 by the Oman Medical College, a private college in Bausher, Muscat. This is a four-and-a-half-year programme, and its first graduates received their degrees in December 2007. The second educational institution to offer a BPharm degree was the School of Pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy & Nursing of the University of Nizwa, a private non-profit institution. This is a five-year programme; the first students were admitted in the fall of 2004 and graduated in March 2010. The fourth class of graduating students are due to collect their degree certificates in March 2013. In the fall of 2003, the College of Medicine & Health Sciences in Sultan Qaboos University, which is a government institution, started a two-year graduate programme leading to a Master of Science degree (MSc) in Biomedical Sciences, with a major in Clinical Pharmacy. I present these programmes to complete the information related to the education of healthcare professionals in Oman. I would like to acknowledge that I have been involved in, or taught at, all three of these institutions during the course of my career.