Evaluation of a clinical pharmacy programme Japan-UK collaboration

The development of Clinical Pharmacy in the United Kingdom (UK) has been established since the 1980's. The concept of pharmaceutical care has developed over the past 30 years and more recently the pharmacists role in medicines optimisation and safety was endorsed by the UK government 2010.The University of Hertfordshire (UH) established a memorandum of understanding with Meiji Pharmaceutical University (MPU) in 2009. Staff exchange and the delivery of clinical pharmacy and patient safety seminars was established in 2009. A unique six week student clinical pharmacy programme was launched in 2010.Tutors at MPU identified students who had completed the 4/5th year of the pharmacy programme and had the appropriate level of language skills to benefit from the programme. MPU identified students were selected through interview with UH tutors. The goal of the clinical programme was to enable students from MPU experience UK educational methods of learning, interaction with UK students and develop a portfolio of clinical practice. The students also had first hand observational experience of a wide range of UK clinical practice. The aim was to evaluate the achievements of this programme.