Pharmacy assessment and building skills within placements towards professional competencies

Abstract

Research into competency-based assessment highlights tension between the university focus on conceptual knowledge and education and the need to build more technically oriented professional practice skills to meet registration and profession‐driven requirements. The competencies approach within professions has been focused on moving beyond a technical checklist of discrete aspects towards a more holistic clustering of generic and occupationally specific skills, knowledge, values and attitudes. This paper highlights some unique aspects of the links between universities and the pharmaceutical profession in relation to competency-based assessment and meeting minimum entry requirements in preparing the pharmacists of the future. University pharmacy students enhance their learning of professional practice skills through clinical placements, but the assessment of all competencies occurs through an internship year overseen by the registration and professional bodies and is based on nationally endorsed competency standards. While competencies and processes are nationally agreed, the achievements of the university program and expectations of learning outcomes in terms of the transition to the profession are less clear across university pharmacy schools. Many students have considerable conceptual knowledge at the conclusion of their course, but need further opportunities to demonstrate that they can apply that knowledge and perform aspects of the role in a real situation. Given the lack of research in Australia into the role of university pharmacy school experiential placements in preparing and assessing students for entry to their profession, this paper presents some findings from literature, research into professions and national consultations with universities and key stakeholders. The paper raises questions about the need for further research into assessment of experiential placements and the development of graduated descriptors linked to competencies to forge a closer connection between the university course and the entry requirements of the profession.