Pharmacists competences

As a pharmacist you are expected to take the steps that a reasonably competent pharmacist would take to ensure that a supply of medication is made in the best interests of the patient. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) (2007) would expect these steps to include ... 

Experienced senior staff of the sponsor must always visit the investigator site before a new clinical trial starts, even if the investigator has been involved in previous studies. Most pharmaceutical companies have checklists and SOPs of the requirements of an investigator site. Key questions will need to be answered relating to staff support and the present workload of the site. The competence of the staff to conduct any procedures, the maintenance, calibration and QC of any equipment to be used, and whether other clinical trials demand too much resource are aU questions that need answers. In addition, the facilities should be inspected to establish whether the site could store and securely archive the large amounts of documents and study drugs that will be present. The pharmacy may play a major role in the study and therefore the facility and the pharmacist should be visited. 

In health care, our definition of competitors sometimes has to be broadened beyond that which is most obvious. For example, in the hospital environment, a new pharmacy program actually may compete with other professions within the hospital. Many of the advanced clinical services that pharmacists provide replace functions of other health care professionals, especially physicians. This is true even in the outpatient environment. For example, a pharmacy-run immunization clinic may compete with physician offices that also administer vaccines. 

So what does this mean for pharmacy practice More pharmacists must understand continuous quality improvement and be able to develop, implement, and measure the outcomes of such a plan. This could provide an opportunity for a community pharmacy report card (quality measurement) system on which pharmacies can compete on the basis of quality. Such a system may provide a great opportunity for pharmacies to advertise quality outcomes to payers and patients. If such a system is successful, quality could drive patient choices and payer decisions. Ultimately the pharmacies with the highest quality may get more market share or obtain higher reimbursement rates for certain services. 

As with any successful implementation of a pharmacy service, education and training of pharmacy staff prior to the implementation of the service are essential for success. Pharmacists should achieve proficiency in providing the service before the start date of the service. The time needed to train pharmacy staff depends on the complexity of the service and the experience of the staff. Not only do the pharmacists need to be knowledgeable about the service, but they also may need to practice some of the skills required for some services (e.g., giving a flu shot or completing a lipid panel). Therefore, there should be sufficient practice and a demonstration of competence before they work with actual patients. To help illustrate how the education and training can occur, the preparation of pharmacists at Care-Rite Pharmacy for their Pharmacy Check-up Service will be discussed. 

The pharmacy shall be managed by a professionally competent, legally qualified pharmacist. The director of pharmacy service must be thoroughly knowledgeable about hospital pharmacy practice and management. 

Independent of which regulation applies at a national level to extemporaneous or magistral preparation of radiopharmaceuticals, the patients should be entitled to expect that these products are prepared accurately, are suitable for use, and will meet the expected standards for quality assurance. Pharmacists involved in this kind of production must ensure that they and any other staff involved are competent to undertake the tasks to be performed and that the requisite facilities and equipment are available [11], As for other radiopharmaceutical production, systems must be in place to ensure the operator safety due to handling of radioactive materials. All involved staff must have sufficient training in radiation safety issues, in addition to training in GMP. 

Probably the most popular and, as it proved to be, the most contentious use of hair analysis was its application to the evaluation of nutritional deficiencies. Many food faddists, pharmacists, nutritionists, and some physicians were convinced that a person s well being was influenced by the concentration of trace metals in his hair. The demands for hair analysis became very large. Many laboratories, some with dubious competence, were estabhshed to satisfy what seemed to be a limitless, ever growing service demand. With the passage of time, however, proponents of this... 

A pharmacist maintains professional competence. A pharmacist has a duty to maintain knowledge and abilities as new medications, devices, and technologies become available and as health information advances. 

You are the new director of pharmacy at a community hospital. At a mock inspection by your institution s regulatory compliance team, you are asked to provide documentation of pharmacist competency assessment. You provide the information, but it is not easy for you to gather. Additionally, you find that less than half the pharmacists whose records you pulled (4/10 40%) have their annual competency requirements completed. The staff has commented to you that they do not feel that the competency assessment program is effective or efficient. After the mock inspection is complete, you identify that the pharmacy competency program should be evaluated. 

Competency case application. For this competency CQI project, it was determined that two indicators would be used to evaluate practice percentage of pharmacists meeting competency requirements and percentage average score on exams per pharmacist. Table 14.6 lists the defined parameters of both competency indicators. 

Pharmacists Meeting Competency Requirements % Average Score on Exams Per Pharmacist... 

Objective Measure the percentage of pharmacists who have taken all required competency exams Measure the average exam scores for pharmacists taking competency exams... 

Numerator All pharmacists (staff, residents, clinical faculty) with the completed block of competency exams Total correct point score for all exams for all pharmacists... 

Threshold 100% pharmacists complete competency requirements Average exam score >80%... 

Competency case application. Figure 14.2 gives the current competency program flowchart. The work group brainstormed to discuss all process steps of the current complex competency program. Pharmacists are oriented to departmental operations and also to clinical programs. Competency exams are written and require manual grading and are distributed to... 

Competency case application. Because the development of much of the Web site was new, the work team decided to pilot the competency site with a few core pharmacists. Also, because many pharmacists at the hme were not familiar with the Internet, an educahonal program also was needed to explain access and help staff navigate through the site. An educational flyer was created that listed the steps to access the competency Web site and secme an area for exam taking. The flyer was dishibuted to mailboxes, posted in the pharmacy areas, and also sent via e-mail to staff with the link to the site in the mail message. Educahonal sessions were held for the pharmacists to intro-... 

Four pharmacists were identified to pilot the program. Development of the site took roughly 2 months. Testing occurred for 1 month before full departmental implementation. Figure 14.5 shows the competency Web page. 

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