Pharmaceutical Care – A New Discipline in the Curriculum: Introducing Pharmacy Students to Medication Non-Compliance

Abstract

Pharmaceutical Care (PC) is a new academic discipline with a direct link to patient care. Since 2003 it has been integrated into the Swiss five-year university pharmacy curriculum. This article aims to describe (1) the concept of PC as a systematic process through which a pharmacist cooperates with the patient and healthcare professionals in designing, implementing and monitoring a therapeutic plan that will produce specific therapeutic outcomes; (2) the didactic concept used for the new discipline; (3) an illustrative example of how to teach pharmacy students the issues of patient non-compliance.