Survey of Awareness of International Health Care Cooperation among First-year Pharmaceutical Sciences Students

Abstract

We conducted an awareness survey of factors relating to“International Health Care Cooperation”among Japanese pharmaceutical students.One hundred and sixty-one of 200 first-year students at Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences who attended a lecture on this subject filled out a questionnaire concerning it.The proportion of students answering that “international collaboration is necessary”was 85.8% and more than 80% of them thought that“pharmacists need knowledge”in this regard.Nearly 70% of the students selected the response“I would like to obtain more knowledge”.While more than 70% of all students were positive about participating in International Health Care Cooperation in the future,female students were significantly more willing to learn about and participate in International Health Care Cooperation (p< 0.05)than male students.Among students planning to become hospital pharmacists,the number feeling that“pharmacists need knowledge”was significantly higher (p<0.05)than for students hoping to follow other pharmaceutical-related careers.Furthermore,students doing voluntary activities were significantly more willing to participate (p<0.01)than others.In conclusion,the pharmaceutical students showed great interest in and willingness to participate in International Health Care Cooperation and our findings indicate the importance of including international health care in the pharmaceutical college curriculum.