Pharmacy students demonstrate to demand “much more practice”

Pharmacy students demonstrate Tuesday, November 21. The 24 French faculties are mobilizing at the call of the National Association of Pharmacy Students of France (Anepf) to demand the implementation of the reform of the 3rd cycle, that is to say the sixth and final year . This reform has been dragging on since 2016 and has still not been adopted. However, it is necessary for the attractiveness of pharmacy studies.

The benches of pharmacy faculties are in fact more and more sparse. This school year, 471 places are vacant in the second year, or more than one place in eight. An indirect consequence of the reform of medical studies in 2020, but also the result of an invisibility of pharmacy and a gap between training and the field, according to Lysa Da Silva, the president of the Association of Students in pharmacy (Anepf). “The pharmacist is taking on more and more shared missions, such as vaccination. But the problem is that our training is not evolving”she explains.

Obtain an internship per semester

The reform of the 3rd cycle, therefore of the sixth and final year, has however been on the shelf since 2016. “Today, what we are asking for are skills-based approaches, so a lot more practice, says Lysa Da Silva. The 3rd cycle reform would, for example, make it possible to do one internship per semester, to really be able to see what pharmacy practice is like in different environments. It would be a revaluation of status”.

This would notably involve the establishment of a short Specialized Studies Diploma (DES), for pharmacies and industry. Anepf believes that if nothing is done, pharmacies will continue to close, thus creating pharmaceutical deserts. The association has also launched an online petition.