The Education of Clinical Specialists in Critical Care in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, recent initiation of the reimbursement from the government to monitor patients in intensive care unit (ICU) and the foundation of certified emergency medicine and critical care specialist resulted in the increased number of ICU pharmacists. Because most pharmacy schools in Japan have provided few lectures or rotations related to critical care, pharmacy students may think critical care is a difficult field. Pharmacy students in the United States usually have basic didactic courses for critical care such as sepsis or sedation. They can also take critical care rotations as an elective advanced rotation. An organized postgraduate training programs, pharmacy practice residency programs (PGY1; post graduate year 1) and specialized pharmacy practice residency programs (PGY2), develop clinical knowledge and skills as clinical pharmacists. Critical care is one of the most popular areas in PGY2 specialty residency programs. Through three years pharmacy students and residents can develop required knowledge and skills in critical care such as patient monitoring skill. As a part of new pharmacists training, our institution provides a week of critical care rotation. The main objective is the introduction of critical care to be a pharmacy generalist and to develop patient monitoring skills. The critical care rotation is the first step to develop critical care clinical pharmacy specialists in the future.