A Brief Introduction of Clinical Chinese Pharmacy Education, Training and Practice in China

In China, there are two types of pharmacists who work on either Western Medicine (WM) or Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Both are responsible for the provision of pharmaceutical care with safe, effective, efficient and accountable medications for patients. Although Traditional Chinese Pharmacy is not a new subject, it faces a new medical environment and requires a transition. In recent years, Traditional Chinese Pharmacy is emerging as an independent discipline, largely due to global acceptance of TCM. With the development of clinical pharmacy and the increase of patients in need of healthcare services, the role of Chinese pharmacists is requiring an imperative reform. Mechanical tasks such as medication dispension are decreasing in hospital and community pharmacies. This change calls for a new model of traditional Chinese pharmacy education to promote the pharmacists’ capacity for advanced direct patient care. Since the late 1990s, some universities and colleges of TCM in China started to offer education and training programs of clinical Chinese pharmacy on various levels. Traditional Chinese Pharmacist education applies training models that closely mirror those of western pharmacists’. Presently, the emphasis of clinical Chinese Pharmacy is beginning to shift to pharmaceutical care practice. With this change, there is an increasing demand for developing clinical skills for clinical Chinese pharmacists, through degree education and non-degree training. So, clinical Chinese pharmacy education requires further development and improvement.