Current state of training for simulated patients and standardized patients and problem-based learning/tutorial education in pharmacy education at National University Corporation

Simulated/standardized patient-based (SP) education and problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial education become a powerful tool to heighten the pharmacy students' will to learn in order to cultivate the responsibility to contribute to public health and welfare as a clinical professional and to facilitate students' competences to solve problems by themselves. What this program is trying to do is: 1) to establish the system to train, educate and supply SP who are effective in the training and education of pharmacy students in close cooperation with the medical schools and their affiliated hospitals; 2) to improve the quality of the current PBL tutorial education and thereby establish it as an advanced education program in the education of senior students. We carried out the questionnaire to National University Corporation which establishes a school of pharmacy, as to the training and education of SP. The analysis of the answers to the questionnaire revealed the present status of SP in the Pharmaceutical Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the Pharmaceutical Common Achievement Test, and the existence of the problems on how to standardize SP as well as how to cover such expenses. Furthermore, the activity of the first year consisted of the exchange and sharing of information regarding the existing method of training and education of SP and PBL tutorial education and the identification of the problems to be solved in order to improve the quality of the educational program.