The first PharmD program in Libya

The first Libyan Faculty of Pharmacy was established at the University of Tripoli in 1975, which successively followed by the second one at the University of Benghazi in 1989.

However, in spite of the limited Libyan population, there is lately an irregular tremendous increase in the number of local faculties of pharmacy. All of these faculties had adopted almost an identical pharmaceutical sciences program that offers a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree.

In 2007, Libyan International Medical University (LIMU) was established as the first private medical university in Libya with a clear mission to develop medical education to get competent graduates to satisfy community needs. Since then, Pharmacy Practice as well as Pharmacotherapeutics was encompassed in the LIMU Faculty of Pharmacy curriculum, and hence, the offered degree was the Bachelor of Pharmacy in a step that can be considered as one of the early initiatives toward the development of pharmacy education in Libya.

However, preliminary studies have clearly shown (unpublished data) that stakeholders are not well satisfied with the outcomes of these pharmacy programs in general due to lack of competencies that serve community needs. Today's pharmacists must be prepared to be self-directed and life-long learners who are able to provide pharmaceutical care to patients according to World Health Organization (WHO) and International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) recommendations.[[1]],[[2]],[[3]],[[4]] Therefore, there is a need for pharmacy programs reform to introduce problem-solving, critical thinking, communications, and decision-making skills.

In 2016, LIMU was the first university in the country to adopt the PharmD Program as one of its undergraduate educational programs. Consequently, Faculty of Pharmacy at LIMU underwent major curricular development, together with the adoption of active learning strategies, which enhances the implementation of the new program objectives. LIMU has appointed a consultancy committee for the PharmD Program. Members of this committee indeed possess relevant international experiences with the task to design and implement the new curriculum using Canadian benchmarks.

Certainly, the process of curricular reform (patient-oriented) and the employment of active learning strategies have involved the adoption of disciplines integrating (horizontal and vertical) curricula throughout all the stages of the program: problem-based learning (PBL) strategy for foundational stage and hybrid PBL/team-based learning methodology for the professional stage [[Figure 1]]. Furthermore, experiential training, both introductory pharmacy practice experiences and advanced pharmacy practice experiences, have been successfully introduced within the program in different practice settings. In addition, ethics, professionalism, research methodology, literature evaluation, critical thinking, graduation project, evidence-based decision-making, interprofessional education, and structured clinical rotations are the fundamental components of LIMU PharmD Program [details of the program can be accessed through the following link https://pharmacy.limu.edu.ly/pharmd-program/#Study-Plan-for-PharmD-Program]. Consequently, virtual pharmacy, drug-information center, simulation laboratory, and clinical skills laboratory are the settings which are used for the implementation of the program's curricular and extracurricular activities. Besides active learning methods, LIMU PharmD Program has adopted novel assessment methods as objective structured practical examinations and objective structured clinical examinations.

Figure 1: Icon of integration of the Libyan International Medical University PharmD curriculum

Recently, LIMU PharmD Program has successfully fulfilled the provisional accreditation requirements that had been set by the National Centre for Accrediting Educational and Training Institutions. LIMU is aiming to achieve full accreditation both at national and at international level with the graduation of the first PharmD batch, which would be an added value to foster health services in Libya.

No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

• References

• 1 International Pharmaceutical Federation-FIP. 2013 FIPEd Global Education Report. Available at: https://www.fip.org/ static/fipeducation/2013/2013-FIPEd-GlobalEducationReport/index.html. [Last accessed on 2019 Jun 26].
• 2 International Pharmaceutical Federation-FIP. 2016 FIPEd Education Initiative. Available at: https://www.fip.org/files/ fip/PharmacyEducation/2016_report/FIPEd_Transform_2016_online_version.pdf. [Last accessed on 2019 Jun 26].
• 3 International Pharmaceutical Federation-FIP. 2016 FIPEd 1912-2012 100 years of advancing Pharmacy Worldwide. Available at: https://www.fip.org/files/fip/PharmacyEducation/GbCF_v1.pdf. [Last accessed on 2019 Jun 26].
• 4 Joint FIP/WHO guidelines on good pharmacy practice: standards for quality of pharmacy services. In: Forty-fifth report of the WHO Expert Committee on specifications for pharmaceutical preparations. WHO Tech Rep Ser 961. Switzerland (Geneva): World Health Organization; 2011. p. 310–23. Available from: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s18676en/s18676en.pdf. [Last accessed on 2012 09 15].

Publication History

Received: 26 May 2019

Accepted: 30 May 2019

Article published online:
10 June 2022