Future expectations for Japanese pharmacists as compared to the rest of the world

Abstract

It is important to share information about other countries' pharmacists to optimize cross-border medical cooperation. This paper examines the dispensing systems and the work done by pharmacists in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Thailand, and Malaysia so as to compare these countries' medical practices and develop a cohesive vision for the future of Japanese pharmacists. All five of the countries have dispensing assistants. Pharmacists in Japan have duties of inventory control, drug dispensing, and providing medication advice. In contrast, assistants working in other countries are responsible for some aspects of dispensing and inventory control, allowing the pharmacists to spend their time and competency in instructing patients on how to take their medication. Because of this, pharmacists were actively involved with health promotion intervention in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. It is hoped that work done by Japanese pharmacists would transition from primarily dispensing drugs to patient care, advice, and counseling to enrich overall health promotion and health/nutrition counseling.

A transition from the BPharm to the PharmD degree in five selected countries

“…Each country created a different process to handle the transition to an all-PharmD programme, but mostly had the process of school accreditation mandated by the appropriate regulatory bodies (Table 3). The barriers to the transition in most of countries are insufficient numbers of academic staff and preceptors in the clinical pharmacy area; insufficient experienced preceptors and training sites; barriers to providing clinical pharmacy activities in some countries due to a high volume of prescriptions and pharmacy workforce shortage 18,28,52,54,55,58,60,62,63,67. Finally, there still needs to be a framework or a set of indicators to measure and monitor the impact/outcome of the PharmD degree.…”

“…There is a prescription law that separates prescribing and dispensing in Japan (Bungyo) 28,55. This law allows opportunities for pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical care activities within the scope of the prescription law 31,57…”

Assessment of Factors Influencing Communication in Clinical Pharmacy

“…Other countries and regions, including Japan (Inoue et al, 2015(Inoue et al, , 2016Y. H. Wei & Shao, 2013), Australia (Y. H. Wei & Shao, 2013;Yang, 2009), the United Kingdom (Inoue et al, 2015(Inoue et al, , 2016Shen, Zhang, Shi, Shao, & You, 2014), France (Inoue et al, 2015), and Malaysia (Inoue et al, 2015(Inoue et al, , 2016, followed by gradually establishing their own systems of clinical pharmacists. However, the "Interim Provisions on the Management of China's Clinical Pharmacy System," the first official management rule on clinical pharmacy services and the mark of the founding of the clinical pharmacy service system, was not established until 2002 (Kong, Huang, Gong, Tian, & Chen, 2013).…”

“…H. Wei & Shao, 2013; Zhu, 2008). Other countries and regions, including Japan (Inoue et al, 2015, 2016; Y. H. Wei & Shao, 2013), Australia (Y.…”

“…Following the establishment of the interim provisions, the working model of hospital pharmacists in China is currently transitioning from the drug-centered model to a patient-centered approach, that is, from primarily drug dispensing to patient care, advice, and counseling to improve overall health promotion. With these changes, hospital pharmacists in China are becoming more “clinical” (Inoue et al, 2015; Murad, Chatterley, & Guirguis, 2014). This inevitable developmental trend in modern clinical pharmacy (Deng, 2011; Kong et al, 2013; Li, Cai, & Zou, 2009) has highlighted the importance of communication between clinical pharmacists and patients, which has occurred in most clinical pharmacies as required in the “Provisions on the Management of Hospital Pharmacy” including diagnosis, pharmaceutical rounds, adverse drug reaction treatment, and medication consultation.…”