The challenge for bodies like the College of Pharmacy Practice is to provide user-friendly post graduate education that will not overwhelm pharmacists who have been registered for many years, while still appealing to those who were newly-qualified. So said Mrs Christine Glover (President, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) at the CPP's college day on May 4 in Dunchurch, Warwickshire (see p734).
Continuing education allowed pharmacists to blossom and it was important that it was provided in modules that enabled pharmacists to develop their skills while continuing to practise, Mrs Glover went on. There was an urgent need for an accreditation scheme that allowed pharmacists engaged in postgraduate studies in one part of the UK to move to posts elsewhere in the country without losing credits. It was important to persuade all parties involved in continuing education, including the CPP and the Society, of the importance of this.
To encourage pharmacists to demonstrate their competence in this way, the Department of Health had to change the mechanism for remuneration, as the pay-per-item method was outdated, she added. The pharmacist's skill was in medicines and this could be used to improve patient health. Currently, the opportunities to increase patient contact were limited by the volume of prescriptions that had to be dispensed. She warned that as continuing professional development was rolled out, pharmacists had to be aware that it might soon become a requirement in order to practise.
Most pharmacists had the skills necessary for the new roles that they were having to perform, such as giving prescribing advice, but needed to build the confidence to use these skills in different ways. Working together was the way forward and the more it was done, the more useful it was found to be. In the future, pharmacies in towns might each have pharmacists with different specialities that were supplemented by peripatetic pharmacists working in each pharmacy, she suggested.

User-friendly education will allow pharmacists to blossom, President says