Recently the Lagos State Government approves the consultancy status for pharmacists in the public health service. This as expected comes with lots of responsibilities so it is expedient and needful for pharmacists to up their game by enrolling in the pharmacy residency programs. In 1996 the Abacha lead government came up with a comprehensive plan aimed at kick starting residency training for pharmacists but for bottle necks and opposition from pharmacists themselves and the federal ministry of health.
The pharmacists council of Nigeria and the Pharmaceutical society of Nigeria in 2013 informed the government of its intentions in commencing the training. The plan has been drawn a long time ago and facilities like JUTH, ABUTH, LASUTH, LUTH, UCH, UDUTH, UMTH, UNTH with so many other tertiary hospitals ready to start the training but with setbacks form the forum of CMDs.
Upon completion of a pharmacy degree, Pharmacists can pursue further training with either a clinical focus, (i.e residency programs), or a research focus (i.e. fellowship programs).
Areas of pharmacy specialty amongst others are
Ambulatory Care
Cardiology
Critical Care
Drug Information
Emergency Medicine
Geriatric
Infectious Diseases
Informatics
Internal Medicine
Managed Care Pharmacy Systems
The federal should ensure that the training starts in earnest and should provide the needed logistics to see to its success as the benefit to Nigerians is immeasurable. Also the NMA should see this as a game of conquest but join hands with the pharmacist aimed at ensuring that specialists are produced for our hospitals.