Bader, L and Bates, I (Eds). (2017) Research, development and evaluation strategies for pharmaceutical education and the workforce: A global report. International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP): The Hague, Netherlands.

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Abstract

KEY MESSAGES: Research, development and evaluation mechanisms are integral to achieving progress on our Vision and the PWDGs; global engagement to make research, development and evaluation strategies an important consideration for implementing the pharmaceutical workforce development agenda is a critical next step for our profession. The PWDGs are aimed to be a set of measurable, feasible and achievable goals. The ability to align national strategies with the goals show that they can be measurable. Collectively, the high alignment between current strategies, projects and initiatives demonstrate that the goals are also achievable. While progress towards achieving the PWDGs varies greatly across countries, all countries – regardless of economic status – have reported some degree of alignment with this global structure indicating strongly that implementation of the PWDGs is feasible and adaptable to local needs. This report starts the discussion to share and evaluate the state of global research, development and evaluation mechanisms that will support national leadership bodies and Member Organisations in the effective implementation of an effective pharmaceutical workforce development roadmap. 1.1 Healthcare access and delivery faces ssignificant global and local challenges; rising demand, increasing co-morbidity and the increasing demand for medicines expertise in particular stand out for our profession. Scaling up the health workforce around the world to meet this general demand is a clear objective for the UN agencies and global leadership bodies such as OECD, ILO and others. 1.2 An understanding of how to evaluate the impact of the pharmacy workforce is necessary, yet generally missing from the research literature. A hybrid model is presented as a first step in stimulating a research discussion on impact measurement and experts and researchers begin to develop critical thinking in this area, particularly a more focussed report on evaluation methodology. 1.3 The global pharmacy workforce needs to be continually monitored and assessed in order to assess various capacity challenges; however further work is also needed to develop professional, economic and disease indicators to better describe the impact of the pharmacy workforce. Academic capacity in particular, and the training of the next generation of scientists and teachers, is an essential component of these workforce intelligence objectives. 1.4 The literature on leadership development in pharmacy is under-researched and little is known about the global status of pharmacy leadership strategies; paradoxically, leadership for ‘leadership development’ remains a challenge, and concerted action is required to drive evidence-generation in this area. 1.5 Country-level leadership bodies should ensure the creation of clear and accessible leadership development programmes and opportunities for their pharmaceutical workforce; this report provides good examples where this has been the case. Additionally, implementation of leadership development strategies should integrate with other aspects of workforce development such as academic capacity, workforce diversity and equality, and quality assurance. 1.6 Whilst the educational research and evaluation agenda in pharmacy needs strengthening, the R&D associated with the increasing use of educational technologies remains even more so. It is clear that better ways of evaluating the impact of technology-driven education need to be developed (including economic evaluations) and more routinely used by education providers so that we can better identify ‘best practice’ and share this in a more global context. 1.7 This report provides a starting point for describing our current global ‘baseline’ in a broad context of workforce and educational development. Similarly, within the context of a valid Vision for transforming the workforce (ref) we should be identifying our current position, across all of the WDGs, in order to plan for structured collective development. 1.8 It is also clear that for some WDGs there is a wider ‘gap’ in relation to others; workforce gender and diversity policy formation have less traction than, for example, competency development or CPD strategy development. 1.9 It has also become clear (and noted in previous FIP Education reports) that terminology describing workforce and education is in danger of becoming confusing. In conclusion, the country case studies show that there is high alignment with the scope and range of current global strategies and the PWDGs which creates a tangible context of relevance and usefulness for global workforce transformation; this initial evidence supports the notion that the FIP Education Vision and PWDGs are what they’re intended to be: measurable, feasible and achievable goals. Leadership bodies and member organisations should consider the incorporation of this global structure for meaningful national workforce development and progression.

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