Developing consensus around the pharmaceutical public health competencies for community pharmacists in Scotland.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
The new community pharmacy contract in Scotland will formalise the role of pharmacists in delivering public health services. To facilitate assessment of education and training needs it is necessary to define the relevant public health competencies for community pharmacists. The objective of this research was to define and develop consensus around such competencies.

METHODS:
The "Skills for Health National Occupational Standards for Public Health Practitioners" was used to define an initial set of competencies. A two stage Delphi technique was undertaken to develop consensus. An expert panel, representing public health and pharmacy stakeholders, rated their agreement with the importance of each competency, with the agreement level set at 90%.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Level of agreement (%) with each public health competency; those competencies achieving more than 90% agreement with importance for community pharmacy practice.

RESULTS:
Ten organisations (83% of those invited) and a total of 30 members (88%) agreed to take part in the process. In round 1 of the Delphi, responses were received from 25 (83%) individuals and 22 (73%) in round 2, with consensus being achieved for 25/68 (37%) competencies in round 1 and a further 8/68 (12%) in round 2.

CONCLUSION:
Public health competencies for community pharmacists achieving consensus predominantly focused on health improvement activities at individual and local community levels and ethical management of self rather than those relating to surveillance and assessment and strategic development. There is a need to research community pharmacists' views of these competencies and to systematically assess their education and training needs.

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Author information

Author/s: Pfleger, David E (DE); McHattie, Lorna W (LW); Diack, H Lesley (HL); McCaig, Dorothy J (DJ); Stewart, Derek C (DC);

Affiliation: School of Pharmacy, The Robert Gordon University, Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FR, Scotland, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Pharmacy world & science : PWS (Pharm World Sci), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jan; vol 30 (issue 1) : pp 111-9

Dates: Created 2007/11/21; Completed 2008/03/06;

PMID: 17717724, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attitude of Health Personnel
Community Pharmacy Services
Consensus
Delphi Technique
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Promotion - methods

Humans
Pharmacists
Professional Competence - standards
Public Health - education; standards
Qualitative Research
Scotland

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