Pharmacy education like any other system needs constant maintenance, upgradation and revision to keep pace with the changing times and technology. Pharmaceutical scenario in India is witnessing a paradigm shift and pharmacists have a key role to play in the healthcare system. Today, the thrust of the healthcare segment is on patient care profile and clinical and hospital patient sitting. As a result, subjects like clinical pharmacy, pharmacy practice and community pharmacy are finding more importance in the curriculum of many pharmacy colleges of the country.

Demographic changes, disease patterns and rapid advances in pharmaceutical science have resulted in the use of more drugs and more expensive drug delivery systems. Such changes are challenging the pharma educators, who are responsible for educating the future pharmacy practitioners of the country. Due to the rapid proliferation of pharmaceutical agents, pharmacy has to face the brunt of this impact. Recognizing this fact, the existing system of pharmacy education and training must be reviewed, since the outcome should reflect the needs of the society.

A curriculum is not simply the list of topics to be studied and time in hours required for teaching the topics. A curriculum should be designed to fulfill the objectives of the course. Hence, objectives should be defined first. To achieve these objectives effectively, the instructional methods must be specified. Apart, it is essential to select appropriate assessment methods to assess whether the objectives are attained or not. To be more specific, ideally a curriculum should consist of:
■ Objectives
■ Topics
■ Instructional pedagogy
■ Scheme of evaluation

Objectives
To devise and revise the curriculum, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the objectives of pharmacy education. Education inevitably plays one of the important roles in shaping the destiny of any profession. Education and training imparted to students must provide the scientific technical know-how, social awareness and communication skills with balanced emphasis on each. The education should provide the function necessary for pursuing excellence in the profession throughout lifetime.

The pharmacy education in general has got certain objectives. They are:
■ To generate and disseminate knowledge and to promote technological innovations and know-how so as to prepare the pharmacy graduates to meet the emerging needs of the society, local industries and profession
■ To produce creative pharmacists possessing knowledge, skills and attitudes with integrity, character, imagination, creative thinking and capacity for sustained hard work
■ A pharmacist must be educated to have the knowledge of preparation, distribution, action and uses of drugs and medicines as well as to train himself in the field of production management, quality control, market research, community pharmacy and other related fields. The pharmacy graduates must be trained to work as an active member of the healthcare team

Also, the pharmacy education has certain particular objectives. They include:
■ To know physical, chemical, pharmacological and therapeutic properties of drugs of synthetic, natural and biological origin
■ To know the properties and uses of such substances useful as pharmaceutical additives
■ To understand the preparation, standardization, analysis, packaging, storage and utilization of pharmaceutical dosage forms, cosmetics and allied substances
■ To know the rules, regulations and ethics concerning the practice of pharmacy profession
■ To impart knowledge of other areas such as communication skills, management principles and accountancy that are useful for becoming a perfect pharmacy professional
■ To acquaint with the newer trends in the pharmaceutical sciences and knowledge base to sustain the research capabilities

Need for reversing curriculum
Traditionally, pharmacy education focuses more on drug products, emphasizing chemistry, pharmaceutics and the control and regulation of drug product delivery systems. However, the changing health care delivery system and the increasingly prominent role of pharmaceutical agents in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases are turning the focus to a broader role for pharmacy graduates.
The drawbacks of the existing pharmacy curriculum are:
■ Lack of uniformity in the curriculum of undergraduate pharmacy programme in Indian universities
■ Curriculum imbalances in the existing system, which leads to overlapping and repetition in teaching
■ Lack of information regarding advances in the pharmaceutical technology taking place across the globe
■ Inclusion of outmoded and unnecessary elements in the present curriculum
■ Inadequate emphasis on imparting communication and inter-personal skills
■ The quantum of practical training is not well defined and is not uniform
■ Lack of exposure of students in humanities, entrepreneurship and management principles
■ Lack of proper interaction between industry and the academia
■ The present curriculum tends to be too academic and theoretical. There is stereotyped nature of the laboratory practices. The students do not get ample opportunities to experiment, to use case studies to understand the advanced techniques in pharmacy.
■ Majority of the topics of degree syllabus are outdated or not in current practice in pharmaceutical industry
■ No knowledge of latest manufacturing procedures, regulatory affairs and good manufacturing practices
■ The students are not exposed to upcoming branches of pharmacy like clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, chronopharmacokinetics and nanotechnology
■ Lack of identification of national needs
■ Absence of committed determination on the part of pharmacy education planners and continuity, agenda and working plan
■ Limited resources and the perception that little will be lost if nothing happens
■ Political grandstanding.

(To Be Concluded) (The author is principal of Veerayatan Institute of Pharmacy and dean of Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, K. S. K. V. Kachchh University, Kutch)