Abstract:
Background: Many countries require that registered pharmacists are competent to extemporaneously compound. In general, however, there is a lack of opportunity for interns and new pharmacists to practice extemporaneous compounding due to the reduction in demand for extemporaneously compounded products in community pharmacy. Thus it falls to schools of pharmacy to prepare future pharmacist for this role. Objectives: With respect to extemporaneous compounding to pharmacy undergraduates- to determine what is taught, how it is taught, how it is assessed and the time allocated to teaching in the different schools of pharmacy in the five countries. Methodology: Thirty eight course coordinators involved in the teaching of extemporaneous compounding from 32 schools of pharmacy in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom were invited to complete an online survey using Survey MonkeyTM. Results: Twenty four responses were obtained from participants in all five countries (response rate 63.2%). Extemporaneous compounding was a compulsory component of all the BPharm programmes. However, there was a wide inter and intra-country variation in the teaching of the subject including the number of hours dedicated to its teaching, the dosage forms included and the teaching methods used. Many schools used extemporaneous compounding teaching to introduce transferrable skills, such as the ability to accurately calculate. A strong desire to retain the teaching of extemporaneous compounding was expressed by the course coordinators. Discussion: Our results highlight differences in the extemporaneous compounding teaching of the BPharm programmes in the five countries surveyed, but also uncover its use in developing related skills.
