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DEVELOPING
AN EVIDENCE BASED COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR PHARMACY PRACTITIONERS
Mills
ER, Bates I, Davies JG, Farmer D, Webb D
Dept. of Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, 29 – 39 Brunswick
Square,
London WC1N
elizabeth.mills@ams1.ulsop.ac.uk
Introduction
Recent research by our group in hospital pharmacy, has described the design
and evaluation of a general level competency framework to facilitate the
development of pharmacy practitioners at a general level. An improvement in
individual performance was seen where the framework was appliedi,ii,
which was sustained over a 12 month period. The benefits were related directly
to the framework’s explicit and structured description of the key required
competencies, and the assessment ratings allowing the pharmacist to compare
their performance against a standard. This paper describes the first stage of a
two part project to develop the General Level Framework to support primary care
and community pharmacist, and to evaluate this framework as a measurable
mechanism to support the CPD of these pharmacists.
Methods
The development and validation of the framework broadly followed the
standard method for the development of a competency framework described by
Whiddett and Hollyfordeiii, and included the following stages: a
literature review and review of current competency frameworks to identify
behavioural statements; questionnaire; mapping of behavioural statements onto
existing general level framework; consensus development panels; expert panel
review; final consultation.
Results
A summary of the content of the framework is shown in table 1.
Table 1 Overview of the Framework for Professional Development for Pharmacists
Working in Primary Care and Community Pharmacy
|
Competency Cluster |
Competencies |
|
Delivery of Patient Care |
Patient Consultation; Need for the Drug; Selection of the drug;
Provision of drug product; Medicines information and patient education;
Monitoring drug therapy; Evaluation of outcomes |
|
Personal Competencies |
Organisation; Effective communication skills; Team work;
Professionalism |
|
Problem Solving Competencies |
Gathering information; Knowledge; Analysing information; Providing
information; Follow up |
|
Management and Organisation Competencies |
Clinical Governance; Service Provision; Budget setting and
reimbursement; Organisation; Training; Staff management; Procurement |
Discussion
This study has successfully adapted the general level framework designed for
pharmacists working in secondary care, to be relevant for pharmacists working in
primary care and community pharmacy. The adapted competency framework is
evidence based, grounded in the literature and validated by expert and
individual pharmacist opinion. The evaluation of the framework developed from
the research described here is currently underway.
References
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McRobbie D, Webb DG, Bates I, Wright J, Davies JG.
Assessment of clinical competence: designing a competence grid for junior
pharmacists. Pharmacy Education 2001; 1: 67-76.
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Webb DG, Davies JG, Bates, IP, McRobbie D, et al.
Competency framework improves the clinical practice of junior hospital
pharmacists: interim results of the south of England trial. Int J Pharm
Pract 2003; 11 (suppl): R91.
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Whiddett S and Hollyforde S. The Competencies handbook.
1999. London, Institute of Personnel and Development
Presented at the HSRPP Conference 2005, Reading
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