Pharmacy education in Romania: alumni perspectives on curriculum relevance and professional readiness

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Source: Frontiers Medicine

Original: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1678666...

Published: 2026-01-07T00:00:00Z

The study examines the views of Romanian pharmacy graduates from 2009-2023 on curriculum relevance and professional preparedness in different employment sectors. Graduates rated their overall preparedness as moderate (mean 3.08 out of 5), with differences by institution, age, and work sector. They showed high confidence in pharmacology and communication, while management, regulatory affairs and therapy management were the main gaps. Pharmacology and clinical pharmacy were considered highly useful, while physics and inorganic chemistry were considered prohibitively difficult and less practical. Open-ended responses highlighted the need for greater curriculum flexibility, experiential learning, soft skills and entrepreneurship. The results show a mismatch between standardized education and practice, so the study suggests reforms based on the opinions of graduates, modular curricula and integration of cross-cutting competencies.