Objectives: To assess the suitability of the existing Pharm.D. programme curriculum in producing professionally competent clinical pharmacists in India. Methods: A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions, among the Pharm.D. graduates who were working as clinical pharmacists across various hospitals in India. The questionnaire was shared using an online platform (Google Forms) among 138 clinical pharmacists and the responses obtained were assessed and discussed. Results: The response rate was 25.3% with the majority of participants in the age category below 25 years. 65.7% of participants had not undergone any training programmes to improve their professional skills after the completion of the Pharm.D. programme. 45.7% of the study population had the opinion that the absence of clinical preceptors with clinical knowledge in their pharmacy school was the reason for the weak outcomes of the programme. The weakness of the curriculum was well explained by the participants by the absence of clinical training and specific objectives of the curriculum. The professional difficulties faced by the clinical pharmacists include lack of confidence to interact with other health care professionals (41.9%), poor professional management (32.3%) and difficulty in identifying the appropriate drug and dosage forms (19.4%). 24.2% had the opinion that they may avoid pursuing the Pharm.D. programme in India if they were starting all over again. Conclusion: The pharmacy schools should not conduct programmes only to make monetary benefits, but the prescribed quality standards shall be met completely without compromise. The assignment of setting up clinical pharmacy expertise in the nation may remain another unfulfilled dream, if screening, tuning in, and updating is not carried out at whatever point essential.

Pharmacy practice continues to evolve, and knowledge update is necessary to facilitate better and safer patient care. This article provides information about certificates and certification programmes hosted for international pharmacists to support their scope in advanced pharmacy practices. A pilot online survey to 59 pharmacists revealed preferences towards Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS), American Society of Health-system Pharmacists (ASHP) certificate, Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacy (SIDP) Antimicrobial stewardship certificate programmes, University of Florida pharmacy certificate programmes, and Medication therapy management programme (MTM) for their certification programme. Grey literature and authentic websites of each programme were collected to provide information on each programme. This article serves as a guide for international pharmacists to know further information about certificates and certification programmes available to support them in advancing their practice.

No abstract

Objectives: Present study is aimed at reporting the use and people's attitude towards the traditional system of medicine for their medical emergencies or common ailments. Methods: Study was done in outpatient departments of Guwahati Medical College, Assam. Study design was hospital based cross-sectional study, carried out for a period of 4 months. Patients attending outpatient departments were included in the study. A survey using openand close-ended questionnaire was used to collect the data. Questionnaire survey data was entered in Excel spreadsheets and summarized and reported in Figures and Tables . Results: Out of the 259 total participants, 172 (66.41%) respondents consulted allopathic practitioners more than 3 times for diseases they suffered last year. Minority population (18.9%) had consulted traditional medicine practitioners during the last year. Moreover, 62% never consulted a traditional system practitioner during the previous year. Study proved that easy improvement of physical health (25.86%), speedier actions of allopathic medicine (11.58%), lack of improvement of their health problems by using alternative medicinal system (7.72%) and availability of free medicines in the tertiary hospital they visit (1.93%) as the reasons for increased use of allopathic system. A very small percentage (8.88%) of people opinioned that traditional system is best, because of the lack of side effects and suitability of traditional medicinal system in treatment of common ailments. Conclusion: It is clear from the study that traditional system of medicine didn't acquire its popularity among commoners in Assam even though many of the developed countries partially or fully support such medicinal systems.