Reviewing the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy Education and Fundamental Capacities to Become a Pharmacist with a 20-year Perspective on Human Resources Development

Abstract

The model core curriculum for pharmacy education (core curriculum) specifies the basics of 6-year pharmacy education. Pharmacy education is currently being provided based on the revised version of the core curriculum created in 2013 (revised core curriculum), with the aim of training pharmacists with the ability to fulfill social needs. The revised core curriculum also defines the "fundamental capacities to become a pharmacist" that should be acquired by the time of graduation. As education based on the revised core curriculum has been progressing, various challenges of this version, which may also be related to the basis of 6-year pharmacy education, have been identified. Measures to address these challenges, including: clearly indicating the number of goals in each area and the relationship between basic and clinical pharmacy; demonstrating the basic ideas of 2 areas differing from those for knowledge acquisition, 〈basic items〉 and 〈pharmacological research〉; and defining 〈clinical pharmacy〉 and the 〈fundamental capacities to become a pharmacist〉 in the context of pharmacy education, should be discussed in the future. Students educated based on a new version of the core curriculum, which will be created during the next term, are supposed to be active in society as pharmacists 20 or 30 years later. With this taken into account, this paper discusses the revised core curriculum currently in use, and proposes improvement plans for the new version, such as specifying parameters to evaluate learning achievements and the hierarchical relationships among areas.