Urgent Need For Corrective Measures

Pharmacy education in India is facing a number of problems ranging from quality of students to the quality of faculty and uneven growth...

- Dr S.J.S. Flora

The vision of pharmaceutical education is to improve public healthcare system. According to WHO, the responsibility of pharmacist is not only limited to acquisition, distribution, rational and controlled use of drugs but also support necessary developments in pharmaceutical education and their training (WHO 1988). Their role begins with patient care, counselling, compounding, drug administration to train and educate human resources.

Even though it is such novel profession, the pharmaceutical education is getting step-motherly treatment in the country. In this era of globalization, the pharmaceutical education system in India faces several lacunae which need to be addressed immediately.

Mainstays of pharmacy education

The two mainstays of pharmacy education in India are; one, industry-oriented and the other, healthcare-based. The Diploma in Pharmacy caters to the major demand of trained professionals in healthcare system. However, Bachelor of Pharmacy caters to the demands of industrial system. The expected outcome of education system in Master’s in Pharmacy is deemed to fulfil the research gaps and train human resources for training and educating diploma and bachelor students. Further, induction of PhD programme in pharmaceutical science has been oriented to provide highly trained person for research and training purpose. With due cognizance of health care system in western countries, recently the induction of PharmD programs has been done.

Quality of students