Evaluation of a practical training program for drug information services for fifth-year pharmacy students in a hospital.

Drug information (DI) services is an essential resource for pharmacists to provide counseling to patients and guide appropriate medication use. We devised a DI practical training course that incorporated an inquiry-based practical training program and evaluated its effectiveness. A total of 91 fifth-year students in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Fukuoka University took part in the following DI sessions based on specific behavioral objectives (SBOs) for DI in the Model Core Curriculum for Practical Training: inquiry practice, simulated pharmacy and therapeutics committee, DI newsletter, use of emergency and safety information, off-label use in clinical trials, PRE-AVOID (Be prepared to avoid the adverse drug reactions), adverse drug reactions, and small group discussions about drug poisoning.