School of Medicine and Medical Science, Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Med Teach. 2010;32(2):e71-7. doi: 10.3109/01421590903199635.
Internationally, there is tighter monitoring and enforcement of fitness-to-practice requirements in healthcare, which are being specified within legislation and guidelines. In Ireland, the Pharmacy Act 2007, that was recently published and is being gradually implemented, includes a provision for monitoring fitness-to-practice of pharmacists practicing here. This will mean that upon initial and continued registration by the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, pharmacists must satisfy a fitness-to-practice committee. Two routes by which a pharmacist can be deemed unfit to practice are specified within the Act - on the basis of ill health and through technical incompetence/malice. However, the exact nature of professional, cultural, and technical competencies required to satisfy these new fitness-to-practice requirements remain undecided and a further consultation with all stakeholders is required. Importantly, this consultative process must consider current practice standards and raise awareness of these issues among pharmacists while also considering the current and future undergraduate pharmacy students, i.e. the future pharmacists of Ireland. Radical cultural shifts in monitoring fitness-to-practice, with full professional accountability, must inform changes in the undergraduate curriculum and in assessing students, such that when they graduate, they are thoroughly prepared for ongoing fitness-to-practice scrutiny. Here, different approaches to international pharmacy education that may help pharmacy educators in Ireland prepare their students for the new fitness-to-practice requirements are reviewed and discussed.
在国际上，医疗保健领域对执业能力要求的监控和执行更加严格，这些要求正在立法和准则中得到具体规定。在爱尔兰，最近颁布并正在逐步实施的 2007 年《药房法》规定了对在爱尔兰执业的药剂师进行执业能力监测的条款。这意味着，爱尔兰药剂师学会理事会在初始和持续注册时，药剂师必须满足执业能力委员会的要求。该法案规定了两种认定药剂师不适合执业的途径——基于健康状况不佳和技术能力不足/恶意。然而，要满足这些新的执业能力要求所需的专业、文化和技术能力的确切性质仍未确定，需要与所有利益攸关方进一步协商。重要的是，这一协商过程必须考虑到当前的实践标准，在提高药剂师对这些问题的认识的同时，也要考虑到当前和未来的药学本科生，即爱尔兰的未来药剂师。全面的专业问责制的执业能力监测方面的重大文化转变，必须促使本科课程和学生评估发生变化，以便学生毕业后能够充分准备好接受持续的执业能力审查。在这里，审查和讨论了国际药学教育的不同方法，这些方法可能有助于爱尔兰的药学教育工作者为学生做好新的执业能力要求的准备。
