The feasibility, development and validation of a global competency framework for pharmacy education.

摘要

For healthcare professionals, the capacity to improve therapeutic outcomes, patients' quality of life, scientific advancement and public health imperatives is dependent on a foundation of competence. Likewise, a competent practitioner workforce is an essential pre-requisite for all healthcare professions and pharmacy is no exception. Despite this shared understanding, the very definition and domains of competence in pharmacy practice, across countries and cultures, has never been investigated. The aims of this project were to explore the feasibility of developing a global pharmacy competency framework and, if feasible, to create and validate this framework. The hypothesis for the research is that there is a common, shared platform for competency development in pharmacy that has global relevance and resonance. A multi-method analysis was used in all phases of the research project. To research the feasibility of the development of a Global Competency Framework (GbCF), an international workshop was conducted to explore cultural influences on competence. Following this, two global cross-sectional surveys were conducted to understand the prevalence of national competency frameworks for pharmaceutical services and the pharmacy student's learning experience in developing generic and independent learning skills related to professional competence. This research comprised a literature review and a content analysis in the development of a draft version of the GbCF following standard methodologies. The draft GbCF contains a core set of behavioural competencies synthesised from documents and deemed to be generally applicable for the pharmacy workforce worldwide. Subsequently, validation panels were used to review and assess the validity of the developed GbCF via consensus developmental panel, content validation panel, respondent validation and a further global cross-sectional survey assessed the relevance of the derived competencies and behaviours. This research provides evidence that a global competency framework can be developed that describes relevant and valid transnational competencies for pharmacy practice.