Focus group to explore issues surrounding continuing professional development for locum community pharmacists

摘要

The 2002 workforce census by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) found that 36% of pharmacists work as a locum, on occasion.This is a substantial proportion of the pharmacy workforce, and is confirmed by anecdotal reports that many community pharmacies have no permanent pharmacist, and are run wholly by locum pharmacists.There has been little published research on issues surrounding continuing professional development (CPD) for locum pharmacists. The aim of this work was to gain ideas of locum community pharmacists' views of CPD, investigate their CPD needs, and discover the CPD resources available to them