Alaa Ahmad Farajallah is a Senior Instructor at College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Ajman University with over 15 years of experience in pharmacy education and academic support. She holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (2005) and an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy (2014) from Ajman University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical pharmacy/pharmacy practice at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her Master research explored the relationship between the ghrelin hormone and type 2 diabetes among Emirati patients. She has a solid track record in teaching a wide range of tutorials and laboratory courses within the College of Pharmacy and has been an active member of the Clinical Sciences Department’s Training Committee since 2014. In addition to her teaching and research roles, she serves as an Academic Advisor, supporting both newly admitted and continuing students, including those on academic warning or at risk. Her dedication to student success is reflected in her proactive approach to advising, registration assistance, and collaboration with institutional support services. Her research interests include Pharmacy practice; Patient safety; Medication reconciliation and Quality use of medicines
Abstract Objectives To evaluate pharmacists’ opinions on the need for Arabic in pharmacy education and practice in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods A questionnaire was developed to address the study objectives and hand delivered to a stratified sample of community pharmacists and a convenience sample of pharmacists in other areas of practice in the UAE. Pharmacists’ responses were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) towards teaching of the following topics in Arabic: management of chronic diseases and minor ailments, screening for diseases and counselling on smoking cessation, exercise, weight management, diet and nutrition and complementary/alternative medicine. Topics related to communication skills were also assessed. Descriptive statistics on participant responses were calculated and chi-square test of independence examined inter-relationships among pharmacist and pharmacy variables. Key findings A total of 351 pharmacists completed the questionnaire. Almost 50% of pharmacists considered Arabic in health sciences education a cultural and/or practice necessity. In pharmacy undergraduate curricula, preferred topics to be taught in Arabic included counselling on complementary/ alternative medicine (67.4%), management of cold/flu (65.5%), counselling on weight management (64.2%), communication in special situations (63.2%), vocabulary (63.2%) and listening and empathic responding (62.6%). For continuing education, topics included management of cold/flu (69.8%) and skin conditions (69.2%), counselling on smoking cessation (68.9%), communicating with physicians and other professionals (54.8%), communication in special situations (54.7%) and vocabulary (50.9%). Conclusions For all assessed topics and communication skills, more than half of the pharmacists agreed that they needed to be included in pharmacy education. A blended learning approach that combines integrated content for native language within an English curriculum could be explored.