Heterogeneity of the Italian residency training in hospital pharmacy: A pilot study from students' perspective

Becoming a hospital pharmacist in Europe is nowadays patchy and differs from nation to nation. In Italy, an educational post-graduate program called “School of Hospital Pharmacy” (SHP) is mandatory to work in the National Health System (NHS). SHP was recently renovated and harmonized but considerable differences remain along the nation. We performed a cross-sectional study asking, through a specific questionnaire, the Italian SHP students to indicate the reasons on which lays this lack of homogeneity. We found out that a good relationship with tutors was significantly correlated with the degree of students' autonomy. Higher adherence to study plan can be predicted by year of study, localization of SHP in Northern Italy, and allocation of an academic salary and a good relationship with tutor. Academic salary and year of study also predicted the number of scientific paper published by students.