Development of Competencies of Community Pharmacy Clerkship in Thailand

Abstract

Thai pharmacy core competencies are used as a standards to develop pharmacists’ professional role and for pharmacy licensure examination. Pharmacy competencies framework were established to develop and accredit pharmacy students and pharmacists performance. The Pharmacy Council of Thailand established pharmacy core competencies and professional competencies which were categorized into 3 main tracks: pharmaceutical care (PC), industrial pharmacy (IP), and medication and health consumer protection. The PC competencies were used to developed pharmacists who work in hospital and community pharmacy. But, they had different expectation of competencies standard for their professional practices and they need their specific professional competencies. This research aimed to develop a consensus statement of competencies for community pharmacists in Thailand and define a statement of competencies that pharmacy student must develop during 6th year community pharmacy clerkship rotation. There were 2 phases of study process. In phase 1, to generate a comprehensive list of community pharmacy competencies for pharmacists using a systematic review, a customers’ expectation survey, and a consensus from educators’face to face meeting. In phase 2, to develop a statement of community pharmacy competencies for pharmacists in Thailand using Delphi technique, and to define competencies for 6th year community pharmacy clerkship using nominal group technique (NGT) in educators review process.Forty-four competencies were defined as the community pharmacy competencies for pharmacists in Thailand and divided into 4 domains: Personal competencies, Pharmacy Professional competencies, Patient care competencies, and Management competencies. Of 44 competencies, 23 competencies were identified as essential and very important competencies for 6th year community pharmacy clerkship: 7 Personal competencies, 3 Pharmacy Professional competencies, and 13 Patient care competencies. Community pharmacy in Thailand is deemed as a healthcare business that sector provide both medicines and health services to customers. Community pharmacy competencies should encompass the individual patient care, ability to encourage health prevention and health promotion together with provide health and medication information, and conducting business management under ethical standards. Pharmacy students need to develop patient care performances, implement professional ethics in their pharmacy practice with service-mind attitude, maintain confidentiality, and perform health screening and health promotion during 6th year community pharmacy clerkship rotation.