Table 4.

Deficiencies identified and changes recommended

Deficiency identified	Recommended change(s)
The core self-care content covered across Canadian pharmacy school curricula varies, with a range of 13 to 91 hours total (for required courses).	Establish a minimum number of contact hours and core topics to be covered for nonprescription therapy, prescribing for ambulatory conditions and preventative medicine for an entry-to-practice pharmacy curriculum. However, based on the feedback attained here, we cannot at this time recommend what the minimum content hour standard should be, other than it may lie between 13 and 91 hours.
Self-care education in Canada is integrated in various ways, such as through required or elective coursework and as stand-alone courses, similar to the variability found across American pharmacy schools. 4,15	We believe that both integrated and stand-alone approaches are acceptable ways to deliver self-care content. However, we hope that integration does not weaken its importance within a course. Thus, self-care therapy should preferably be overseen by a designated faculty lead to ensure adequate coverage of self-care topics within the curriculum.
Some Canadian pharmacy schools feel that pharmacy curricula inadequately cover natural health products (NHPs), while others are uncertain of the breadth of education provided to students.	Expand the NHP content in pharmacy curricula.
Various teaching methods are used, with some schools relying more on traditional didactic instruction (lectures), while others emphasize more active learning methods, such as team-based or problem-based learning.	Encourage faculty to adopt learning methods beyond delivery by didactic lectures. Consider reinforcing self-care material in the final year of pharmacy education during required advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs)/rotations and through formal assessments and evaluations.16
Self-care education varies across Canadian pharmacy curricula, reflecting differences in scopes of practice across provinces, topics of interest and availability of space within curricula by the various faculties.	Develop national teaching and assessment tools to prepare students for prescriptive authority to ensure that curricula remain up-to-date with the ever-evolving self-care landscape and with changing regulations on prescribing in each jurisdiction.