Through liaison between the School of Medicine and the Institute of Natural Medicine, students at the University of Toyama can learn about the importance of team-based medicine and a sense of ethics in clinical situations, as well as experience natural and herbal medicines.
From the second semester of the third year in the Department of Pharmacy, students receive a laboratory placement, and carry out research on their own research topic until the sixth year. Since specialist knowledge can be learnt in the lab, students can aspire to be pharmacists who see medicines from the perspective of drug development.
In the second semester of the fourth year, preparatory practical training for the Pharmaceutical Common Achievement Tests (OSCE/CBT) begins, and methods for supporting patients/dispensing methods for various drugs are learnt by simulating the real thing.
At the University of Toyama there are prescription counters and sterile dispensing facilities for tablets, liquids, powders and ointments that simulate the real thing, so real-life dispensing practice can be carried out. In addition, lectures and practical training on herbal medicines, vital signs and taking multiple drugs are carried out as a unique part of the curriculum at the University of Toyama.
If students pass the Pharmaceutical Common Achievement Tests, practical training is undertaken from the fifth year under the guidance of a certified teaching pharmacist at a pharmacy or hospital. Through undertaking practical training in a real facility, students can learn and put into practice what is necessary to become the ideal pharmacist.