The development of health and healthcare systems in South‐East Asia has influenced the practice of community pharmacy. Over the years, community pharmacy in the region has striven to expand services beyond dispensing to encompass more involvement in public health issues. Searches were conducted in Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PubMed for articles published between January 2000 and December 2014, with 21 studies in five countries meeting the inclusion criteria. The findings showed increasing interest in research into the delivery of pharmacy services and public health initiatives. Overall, the review found that provision of some health services in pharmacies was common; however, most public health initiatives appeared to be poorly implemented, had limited evidence and were not demonstrated to be sustainable across the sector. This indicates that the practice of community pharmacy in the region has not significantly changed over the past 14 years with respect to the scope and quality of pharmacy services provided, and fundamental policy changes are necessary to improve this situation.

The introduction of Universal Healthcare Coverage (JKN) in 2014 has changed the landscape of the Indonesian healthcare and affected the community pharmacy sector. This paper investigates perceptions of healthcare and pharmacy stakeholders about the impact of JKN on the practice of pharmacists and pharmacy in both public (Puskesmas) and private (Community or Retail pharmacy) settings. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted from February to August 2016 involving 29 participants representing key stakeholders from different provinces in Indonesia. While JKN was actually designed with good policy objectives for pharmacy integration within primary care network, it has created some unintended and unanticipated distortion in the healthcare system which may be detrimental to the community pharmacy sector. In fact, community pharmacy practice is still limited to dispensing and continued to be hampered by ongoing challenges mainly pharmacists' absence, lack of clinical competence and limited support from regulation changes. It is a missed opportunity for pharmacists to play a greater role in primary care services indicating the need for an overhaul to pharmacy education and policy system.

Objectives. To compare longitudinal data with previous cross-sectional data regarding Australian undergraduate pharmacy students' approaches to learning, and explore the differences in approaches to learning between undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts. Methods. Longitudinal, repeated measures design using a validated self-report survey instrument were used to gather data. Results. Undergraduate students' preferences for meaning directed, undirected, and reproduction-directed approaches to learning displayed the same pattern across the 2 studies; however, application-directed scores increased significantly in the second half of the undergraduate degree program. Commencing postgraduate students' approaches to learning were similar to finishing undergraduate students, and this group was significantly more oriented towards meaning-directed learning compared to undergraduate students. Conclusions. Pharmacy students' maturation in approach to their learning was evident and this bodes well for pharmacists' engaging in life-long learning and capacity to work in increasingly complex health settings.

Objectives. To investigate how pharmacy students' approaches to learning change over the duration of a bachelor of pharmacy degree program. Methods. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional, repeated measures design, using a validated self-report survey instrument. Areas examined included processing and regulation strategies, motivational preferences for learning, and the relationship between approaches to learning and academic performance.Results. Pharmacy students were strongly vocationally oriented in their studies across all year groups. This approach had a significant relationship to academic performance. Overall, students indicated a preference for external regulation strategies. There was little evidence of maturation in approaches to learning as students progressed through the curriculum. Conclusions. Students' preference for vocationally related strategies can be harnessed to increase both adoption of self-regulation behaviors and motivation for mastery of material. Comparison of our results with other studies indicates that approaches to learning may be influenced more by the learning environment than the discipline of study.

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