[Patient-oriented teaching formats in clinical pharmacy-status quo in German university pharmacist education]

Due to the change in the professional profile of pharmacists in hospital and public pharmacies in Germany, patients and their individual pharmacotherapy are more than ever within the focus of pharmacy. Teaching in clinical pharmacy should enable future pharmacists to optimize drug therapy for patients. For this purpose, inter alia, patient-oriented teaching formats should be employed. Using a structured literature search and an ad hoc survey among all 22 German pharmacy universities (response rate 86%, 19/22), the range of patient-oriented teaching formats in clinical pharmacy was assessed.At a minimum, the required case-based, theoretical patient-oriented teaching and learning in accordance with the education standard 6 of the Clinical Pharmacy Section of the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG) is implemented among almost all sites (18/19). Six out of 19 educational sites offer four or more patient-oriented teaching formats. Furthermore, the formats bedside teaching (12/19) and interprofessional teaching (10/19) are frequently practiced (mostly optional). Bedside teaching is often provided on a voluntary basis or through teaching assignments by clinical pharmacists. The time available for patient-oriented teaching is clearly limited due to the very restricted personnel resources. The overall view shows that patient-oriented teaching in clinical pharmacy is practiced very heterogeneously. This applies to the type of courses offered, the temporal scope, and the proportion of compulsory courses. The amendment of university pharmacist education should provide significantly more comprehensive and mandatory patient-oriented teaching formats in the subject of clinical pharmacy. This also requires an adequate supply of clinically competent teaching staff.