From Mrs S. J. Povey, MRPharmS
SIR,-As a preregistration tutor, I was delighted today to discover that my current trainee has passed her registration examination. However, news of her friends has filtered through showing a disappointing pattern. All of the trainees she knows who have failed the examination are employed by the same multiple. I would like to ask two questions of the education division of the Society.
First, has there been any data collected to highlight whether the failure rates of trainees is similar across the board or if some companies fair worse than others?
Secondly, would the Society consider bringing in feedback forms for trainees objectively to assess the training and support they received during their year?
While I am sure the answers to these questions will be "no", I hope that these points will be taken seriously. My own preregistration year was inspiring. I had a dedicated and supportive tutor and worked for a company which valued its trainees. This positive experience in that crucial formative year is what all trainees should have. As a tutor I would welcome feedback on my performance. I would be happy for my trainees to assess me as it could only serve to improve my own standards and I am sure that the company I work for would be equally open to constructive assessment or feedback. Schools of pharmacy are inspected and trainees are appraised but who is monitoring the companies who provide the training posts and the tutors who set the example to the trainee in their training year?
Sharon Povey
Hailsham, East Sussex
Ms VIRGINIA WYKES (education development officer, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) replies: The answer to both questions is "yes".
Each year the examination results are analysed in various ways, one of which is the numbers of passes and fails in each of the major employers (top 30 in terms of the number of trainees employed). The data show that none of the community multiples has a "bad" record.
The Society's education division has undertaken surveys of newly and recently registered pharmacists to obtain their views about their preregistration training. The information gathered from these surveys has been fed into discussions by the Preregistration Advisory Group, which makes recommendations to the Council about the future development of preregistration training.
The evaluation of training by trainees is one of the initiatives that is being considered within a range of quality assurance measures that will be debated by the Council in due course.