Pharmaceutical education focused on pharmacotherapy in emergency medical care

Abstract

Pharmacists are expected to be active members of the healthcare team in emergency medicine, because many pharmaceuticals are administered to patients with life-threatening conditions. However, adequate education for pharmacists and pharmacy students is not provided. The “Emergency Pharmaceutical Sciences” course was introduced for the first time in Japan by the Department of Pharmacy, Okayama University, to offer advanced education in emergency medicine and research related to critical care. We offer an emergency pharmaceutical training program with high-performance simulators and have succeeded in improving the clinical skills and confidence of pharmacy students. In this review, we introduce our activities intended to mold pharmacy students into emergency pharmacists who can contribute to emergency medicine.