s a step towards updating the knowledge of pharmacists in line with
pharma industry needs, Rajasthan Pharmacy Council (RPC) is planning to
launch a new Continuing Educational Programmes (CEPs) from January.
Says
Alok Bhargava, member, RPC, "We will be holding a meeting in the month
of January 2014 to devise new industry based CEPs which will help
pharmacists to update and follow standards in pharmacy practice existing
globally."
The council had conducted five CEPs last year and has
witnessed an overwhelming response from the community pharmacists.
"The meeting will also discuss the budget for conducting CEPs so that it
can cater to over 40,000 registered pharmacists in the state. Budget is
not a constraint for us as we do a good number of registrations on an
annual basis. With a total of 41,000 registrations till date, RPC does
3500 registrations on an annual basis," he informs.
Taking into
consideration the pharmacist's role in serving the industry and trade in
a professional and ethical manner, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) is
also looking into the quality assurance aspect in CEPs. As a part of the
quality assurance programme, PCI is working on models to strengthen
CEPs with certain variations to customize it according to the needs of
pharmacists in various parts of the country based on the regions and
their requirements.
These programmes will involve industry people
and other stakeholders in the process of framing the curriculum to give
the much required exposure to the pharmacists.
As a step towards
value enhancement in the quality assurance programme, PCI is also
planning to launch 'train the teachers programme' by next year for which
Rs.1 crore has already been allocated.
CEPs
bear importance in the current scenario as clinical services provided
by pharmacists are fairly new to India and there is also a shortage of
clinical pharmacy trainers. Besides this, expansion of pharmacy
education in India marks an uneven distribution of colleges across
states with quality of education being variable
