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and health economics have forced the academic sector to rethink new ways of preparing up-to-date, highly employable graduates. Locally, a number of market-driven forces have shaped pharmacy education, such as the, thriving pharmaceutical industry which accounts for around 20% of Jordan s manufacturing GDP and the growth of the health services market. Jordan has been transformed into a regional medical hub, with medical tourism as a primary industry. The increase in the population and the increase in tourism have placed demands on the health system in the UAE. To meet health care needs personnel has been recruited from a range of other countries in the Middle East and Asia. To ensure sustainability, and to decrease reliance on foreign trained workers, it is critical that the local, Emirati population be trained to enable them to take a leading role in health care delivery. Aggressive growth in demand is expected for services relating to lifestyle related diseases, e.g. diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and cancer with larger volume increases in outpatient settings. By 2021, it is estimated that up to 3,200 additional doctors and 5,900 nurses will be required but no figures for pharmacy are available [16].

Namibia is one of the most inequitable countries in the world, and health and pharmaceutical needs are typical of the sub-Saharan region (prevalence of HIV/TB/malaria). There is also a serious emergence of non-communicable diseases with almost no pharmaceutical industry and pharmacists in short supply both in the public and private sectors. The new BPharm (Hon) degree in Pharmacy was based on the needs of Namibia and competencies defined by stakeholders in a rigorous curriculum development exercise [10, 17]. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) was also developing their pharmaceutical policy which enabled the curriculum to be broadly aligned to this. A seamless continuum on inter-professional education and multi-disciplinary team based care is planned for future pharmacists, working in teams as students with their medical and nursing counterparts, and transferring this working team into the practice environment as healthcare professionals.

Pharmacy education development in Switzerland has been driven by pharmaSuisse, the Swiss pharmacists association. The association started influencing national pharmacy education by financing the implementation of two new Departments of Pharmaceutical Care at the universities of Geneva and Basel. pharmaSuisse is collaborating with the universities in order to coordinate undergraduate and postgraduate education, and to influence the pharmacy curricula (including post-qualification) to prepare future pharmacists for new roles.

The demographic profile in the UK is changing due to a combination of increased life expectancy and low birth rates, older people are more reliant on medicines and it is expected that medicines use will become increasingly personalised making patients more reliant on pharmacists. A recommendation has been made to the UK s government

to transform pharmacy education from a four-year undergraduate year (plus a pre-registration training year) to a five-year integrated course (with two six-month placements). The proposed change to pharmacy education is based on the vision that pharmacists can make a significant contribution to patients and public health by ensuring that patients get the optimum benefit from their medicines and that the public is supported to stay healthy. The current drivers are from the Modernising Pharmacy Careers (MPC) Programme Board, which is part of Health Education England [18], a new body responsible for education, training and personal development of every member of staff in the healthcare workforce.

The Professional Regulatory Board of Pharmacy in the Philippines is leading on a development of a prototype outcomes-based curriculum, which will be used or improved on, by individual university users. As a major project following the Philippine Qualifications Framework, it allows changes in the curriculum so that advanced competencies not present in the current curriculum may be incorporated. This includes outcomes-based, technical skills certification for each year level. The technical skills programmes are based on the needs of stakeholders. The change in curriculum will be geared towards more business, marketing and entrepreneurship, and pharmaceutical care in a community pharmacy setting. This is because 80% of all Philippines pharmacy graduates eventually work in community pharmacy.

While a slow economic recovery from the deep recession in the USA continues to affect the supply and demand for pharmacists, new practice opportunities are increasing in patient care. Health care in the USA is moving toward a patient-centred, team-based care model and medication use management is now recognised as an essential component of the model by progressive delivery systems.

Current drivers in Chile for pharmacy and pharmaceutical education include quality assurance of pharmacy education, education based on outcomes results and competencies (general and specific).

4.3.2 Workforce issues

Capacity building

In many countries pharmacists have been in short supply and education has played a large part in building workforce capacity. In Namibia the new BPharm degree, with its first graduates in 2014, will produce a generalist pharmacist who can practice in the many fields available for pharmacists including regulatory affairs, community pharmacy, hospital, supply chain management, quality assurance, and pharmaceutical production. The needs and competency-based curriculum against which students are educated means that for the first time ever, Namibia has not only defined what it wants in its future pharmacists but also will receive that product.