The Relationship between Pharmacy Curriculum and the Subjects on the Pharmacist Licensure Examination in Korea

약학교과과정과 약사국가시험과목들과의 상관관계

The undergraduate curricula of the twenty pharmacy schools in Korea were analyzed in order to find out the relationship between the Korean Pharmacist Licensure Examination (KPLE) and the Pharmacy Education. The results of this survey indicated that the Pharmacy Education was highly related to KPLE. During the 1999 academic year, there were 1,853 undergraduate courses offered by the twenty pharmacy colleges excluding pre-pharmacy courses. Of the total courses 73\%$ were related to the twelve subject of KPLE. Eighty percent were related to the basic pharmacy. Only $13\%$ were related to the pharmacy practice. The courses related to the Medicinal Chemistry were 16\% of the basic pharmacy courses. The numbers and the names of the subjects of KPLE have not been change during the past 3- years. Recently, the names of the subjects of KPLE have not been changed during the past 30 years. Recently, the National Health Personnel Licensing Examination Board advised to change the courses from the drug-oriented curriculum to a practice-oriented one. Therefore, it will be better that the curriculum of the undergraduate pharmacy program to be re-organized focusing on the divisions of the courses, not on the name of the courses. The number of the under graduate courses should be reduced by combining the related courses. The more courses in the field of patient-oriented pharmacy practice are needed to be added to the undergraduate curriculum in order to produce the clinical pharmacists.