A new project to analyse the roles of pharmacists in the early years of their careers has been launched in partnership by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Health Education England (HEE).
The project will be led by the Work Psychology Group and will reflect roles in all four UK health systems. It will include desk research, comparison with foundation training programmes in other professions, as well as focus groups.
The RPS expects to use the analysis to underpin and guide the design and review of a UK-wide Foundation Pharmacist Framework, which will inform professional capabilities to be tested at the point of entry, during development, and upon completion of training programmes.
HEE will use the analysis to inform its pharmacy education and training review which will be completed in spring 2019.
RPS Director of Education, Gail Fleming, said, ‘This work is an important key step in realising our ambition to ensure that all pharmacists have access to high quality training and supervision in their early post-registration years. It will help to assure that RPS frameworks and curricula remain current and applicable across a broad range of settings benefitting both our members and the patients they care for.’
Meanwhile, Roz Cheeseman, Pharmacy Dean, Health Education England, added, ‘The role analysis work will provide a valuable piece of evidence to inform a model for developing pharmacists during the early stages of their career. It will feed into HEE’s pharmacy review by informing the development of a common, sustainable education and training pathway for pharmacists so they can have a greater impact on patient care earlier in their career. In drawing on a breadth of evidence from various pharmacy settings, this work will highlight multiple ways of working and inform more integrated models of practising across diverse healthcare systems.’
