Integrating ethnic-racial topics into pharmacy education aligns with national educational guidelines that promote holistic care, equity in health services, and skills for advancing social justice. Despite this foundation, such content is still inadequately incorporated into undergraduate pharmacy programs in Brazil, notwithstanding policy efforts and the country's rich ethnic-racial diversity. To examine how ethno-racial topics are integrated into the undergraduate pharmacy programs across all Brazilian federal higher education institutions (IFES). This descriptive research analyzed pharmacy curricula from these institutions. Two investigators independently extracted data, resolving any differences through discussion and agreement. Key elements collected included ethno-racial topics (e.g., African-descended populations, Indigenous groups, health disparities, racism), curriculum document features, course characteristics, and specific content. Textual analysis was conducted using Iramuteq software with Hierarchical Descending Classification (HDC).
Of the 50 curricula reviewed, slightly more than half (56%) featured courses that addressed ethno-racial topics. Among those that did, most courses were required (64.9%), fell within the social and behavioral sciences domain (56%), and did not center exclusively on ethno-racial content (86.5%). The HDC produced a dendrogram with five clusters: clusters 2 and 1 linked closely to regulatory educational standards, whereas clusters 5, 4, and 3 related to anthropological perspectives, public policies for Black and Indigenous communities, traditional knowledge systems, and biologized views of race. In general, few institutional pedagogical frameworks deeply engaged ethno-racial topics, often limiting coverage to brief mentions of policy requirements rather than exploring their deeper historical and societal implications. These findings highlight the importance of targeted institutional initiatives to better enact policies fostering social justice and patient-focused care.
