D.Pharm Education Regulation-2020 (ER-2020)

Introduction:

“Revamping the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and student support” is one of the vision statements and recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) of Govt. of India for attaining enhanced learning experiences by the students. In light of this, Pharmacy Council of India, the apex body regulating the pharmacy education in the country, committed to revise the education regulations of Diploma in Pharmacy (D.Pharm) program and thus, the ‘Education Regulations 2020’ (ER-2020) has been notified in the Gazette of India in October 2020. This new regulation has given due consideration for the fact that, universally the role of pharmacist has undergone continuous evolution from ‘dispenser of medicines’ to ‘medicine expert’ in the multidisciplinary health care team.

Accordingly, the courses (course means the subject) of the existing education regulations (ER-91) have been revisited, compared with the present and future needs of the society, expectations of the healthcare team and other stakeholders from the pharmacists were assessed, feedback from the experts in the pharmacy and other healthcare professions were sought. Thus, the course of study prescribed in ER-2020 is an amalgamation of all such exercises to arrive at a curriculum structure for D.Pharm that is more relevant to the current practice standards, dynamic to accommodate and address the upcoming changes.

Though the total number of courses across the program remain 21 as that of ER-91, the number of theory courses is reduced from 12 to 11 in the new regulation, while the number of practical courses is increased from 9 to 10. Further, the theory teaching hours across the program have been reduced from 850 to 825, while the practical hours have been increased from 750 to 800 in the new regulation. Three practical courses have been introduced for the first time in ER-2020. Further, about 275 hours have been assigned for the first time in D.Pharm curriculum for ‘Tutorial’ activities. All such changes explicitly reveal that the ER-2020 is intended to provide a little edge to the experiential learning through the practical courses and encourages the small group teaching-learning, self-directed learning, etc. in the tutorial hours.

Introduction of ‘Pharmacotherapeutics’ courses (theory and practical) is one of the revolutionary changes in the new curriculum, that will help the students to hone their knowledge and skills in the area of pharmaceutical care services which will certainly redefine the roles of the D.Pharm qualified pharmacists in both community and hospital settings. Also, the introduction of ‘Social Pharmacy’ courses (theory and practical) will provide insights about the primary and preventive healthcare concepts in the country and the potential roles of pharmacists in such healthcare segments.

In this backdrop, the Council has formulated a Committee which comprised of 16 Members who have rich experiences in various domains such as education, hospital pharmacy practice, community pharmacy practice, clinical pharmacy practice, administrative and regulatory affairs to design the syllabus for the individual theory and practical courses as per the curriculum framework defined in ER-2020. The Committee with its clear understanding about the philosophy and objectives of the ER-2020, drafted the syllabus for individual theory and practical courses with utmost care to avoid repetitions, redundancy, over/under utilization of hours, etc. Every course is defined with scope, set of course objectives and course outcomes which will help to understand the significance and the expectations of the course from both teachers and students. Lots of scope has been given in the syllabus for the active learning by the students through the assignment topics and field visit activities which will enhance their critical thinking, searching scientific literature, interpretation skills and communication skills.

According to the ER-2020 curriculum framework, the students do not earn any credits based on the academic hours they spend. However, as per the conventional methodology of credit calculations, the curriculum of ER-2020 shall be deemed equivalent to 80 credits that shall be used for the administrative purposes, wherever necessary.

Further, the ‘Competencies for the Indian D.Pharm Holders’ based on the knowledge, skill, attitude and value that are essential for the successful practice of the profession have been derived. These competencies have also been mapped with the individual courses of the curriculum based on the expected outcomes of the individual course. Thus, the courses and the competencies are interlaced in such a way that multiple courses contribute to build one competency and one course contributes to build more than one competency, which reveal the strength of the competency mapping.