Introduction:

There is a need to improve nursing students’ training in pharmaceutical care (Stolic et al., 2022) and demonstrate the deficiency in related curricula (Seguro et al., 2023).

Objective:

To identify nursing students’ perception of the adequacy of nursing curricula for developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes in pharmaceutical care and assess students’ competencies in this area.

Methods:

Descriptive study on a convenience sample of undergraduate and master’s students from five Portuguese nursing schools. Data were collected using De Baetselier’s instrument (De Baetselier et al., 2022), and data synthesis used descriptive and frequency measures.

Results:

Fifty-seven students between the ages of 19 and 62, with a median age of 23, participated in the study. More than 60 % believed that nursing curricula only sufficiently address nurses' roles. Fewer than 22% stated that clinical placements provided learning opportunities, and fewer than 23% confirmed that these competencies were addressed in the curricula. Performance for pharmaceutical care varied between 131 and 169 points on a maximum scale of 200 points.

Conclusion:

Nursing curricula do not fit the current framework for nurses’ roles in pharmaceutical care. For this reason, skill-based learning and greater emphasis on pharmaceutical care are recommended.

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