School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2022 Dec;18(12):4028-4037. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2022.06.010. Epub 2022 Jul 6.
There is an expectation from government, regulatory bodies, patients, the public, and other healthcare professions that pharmacists are competent professionals who can practice independently. Regulation of the profession requires pharmacy graduates to register with a recognised regulatory body before being considered 'ready to practise' independently.
To examine the methods and processes used by national regulatory bodies to determine pharmacists' readiness to practise.
A scoping review was conducted using three electronic databases (Embase, Scopus, CINAHL) and websites of national regulatory bodies. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they described the methods and processes used by regulatory bodies to determine pharmacists' readiness to practise. Data were extracted relating to readiness to practise, the registration exam and the role of newly qualified pharmacists, post-registration. Extracted data were collated using narrative descriptive summaries and accompanying tables.
Identified data sources referred to registration of pharmacists across 11 different countries. No sources provided a definition for the term 'ready to practise'. Ten countries were identified as holding a registration examination with varying formats and curricula. Written and oral exams, competency based written assessments, Objective Structured Clinical Examinations and a combination of these were identified with written exam being the most popular (n = 8). In all but one country, the regulator was responsible for delivery of the exam. In most cases (n = 7), the exam was mapped to a pre-defined set of competencies with only a few (n = 4) explaining how these competencies were developed. Only two sources made reference to the role of the newly qualified pharmacist post-registration.
The review has established a paucity of research and publicly available information on the methods and processes used by national regulators to determine pharmacists' readiness to practise. There is no pharmacy definition of being 'ready to practise'. Assessment methods vary widely and, currently, no gold standard is apparent.
政府、监管机构、患者、公众和其他医疗保健专业人员都期望药剂师是能够独立执业的合格专业人员。该专业的监管要求药剂师在被视为“能够独立执业”之前，先向认可的监管机构注册。
检查国家监管机构用来确定药剂师是否具备执业能力的方法和流程。
使用三个电子数据库（Embase、Scopus、CINAHL）和国家监管机构的网站进行了范围界定审查。如果文章描述了监管机构用来确定药剂师是否具备执业能力的方法和流程，则符合纳入标准。提取的数据与准备执业、注册考试以及新注册药剂师的角色相关，包括注册后。提取的数据使用叙述性描述摘要和相关表格进行了整理。
确定的数据来源涉及 11 个不同国家的药剂师注册。没有来源对“准备执业”一词进行定义。有 10 个国家被确定为举行注册考试，考试形式和课程各不相同。书面和口头考试、基于能力的书面评估、客观结构化临床考试以及这些考试的组合都有涉及，其中书面考试最受欢迎（n=8）。在所有国家中，除一个国家外，监管机构都负责考试的实施。在大多数情况下（n=7），考试都与预先定义的一套能力相对应，只有少数（n=4）国家解释了这些能力是如何制定的。只有两个来源提到了新注册药剂师的注册后角色。
该综述发现，关于国家监管机构用来确定药剂师是否具备执业能力的方法和流程，研究和公开信息都非常有限。目前，没有关于“准备执业”的药剂师定义。评估方法差异很大，目前还没有明显的黄金标准。
