The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7380 p759
17 December 2005

Society summary

Council agrees education policy programme

A timetable for a programme of education policy work to underpin the pharmacy profession of the future has been adopted by the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

At the December Council meeting, the Council also agreed, as a first step, to establish a “knowledge, attitudes and skills” working group to develop modern frameworks for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians using a profession-wide, large scale consultation exercise. Its aim will be to establish a consensus about what members of the pharmacy team do, what they need to know, what skills they need to acquire and how they need to behave to meet the challenges of future practice.

The Council will consider details of the consultation exercise with the profession, the public, other health care professions and pharmacy stakeholders (including employers) in May 2006 and the consultation will take place between June and December 2006. The feedback will be used to develop a draft statement setting out what members of the pharmacy team can and cannot do. The Council will consider this, together with the supporting knowledge, attitudes and skills framework, for adoption in the spring of 2007.

The consultation will also inform other work currently being undertaken by the Society, including the revision of the Code of Ethics and the development of a performance assessment framework.

The Society’s education policy lead, Sue Ambler, said: “Recent policy developments have redefined the contribution of pharmacists to the delivery of health care — they are no longer the prescriber’s backstop but frontline professionals making key clinical decisions to change dosages and formulations and increasingly to prescribe in their own right.

“We have to make sure that the education that pharmacists and technicians receive will deliver not only the knowledge but also the skills, attitudes and values required to deliver high quality, consistent and safe practice across pharmacy from day one. Similarly, it is the Society’s responsibility to ensure that they have the capacity to maintain and develop higher standards of practice as they gain experience and accumulate expertise through practice, further study and continuing professional development.”

The working party will have some common membership with the Code of Ethics working party to ensure the work is appropriately co-ordinated. It will meet four times, in February 2006, April 2006, September/ October 2006 and February 2007.