Mills, Elizabeth Ruth; (2007) Developing and evaluating a competency framework for pharmacists working in primary care. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The reform program for the National Health Service (NHS) is based around the need for healthcare professionals to maintain their competence to ensure fitness for practise. A competency framework designed to facilitate the development of pharmacists working at a general level in hospital pharmacy has been shown to improve individual performance. The aim of this thesis was to modify the framework to support primary care and community pharmacists and to evaluate this framework as a measurable mechanism to support continuing professional development (CPD). The framework was modified through a content analysis of the literature to identify the behaviours for pharmacists working in primary care, mapping of these behaviours to the framework, and consensus development panels to review the modified framework. In order to evaluate the framework, one hundred pharmacists working in primary care and community pharmacy in the United Kingdom (UK) were recruited. Sixty nine were allocated to use the framework to support their CPD, whilst 31 did not have access to the framework for development purposes. All pharmacists made an initial self assessment against the framework. Intervention pharmacists used the framework to identify learning needs for CPD and were visited at 4 months and at 8 months by a trained facilitator to support their self assessment. Final self assessments were collected from all pharmacists at 12 months. Intervention pharmacists showed a significantly greater improvement in performance than the non-intervention pharmacists overall, and in each competency cluster. Additionally intervention pharmacists reported greater engagement with CPD at the end of the study compared with the non-intervention pharmacists. All pharmacists reported performance improvement over the 12-month period, but use of the framework led to a significantly greater improvement. This was due to the framework defining the expected competencies, the self-assessment allowing pharmacists to identify their learning needs for CPD, and the support provided by the facilitator. These results complement the evidence from the evaluation in secondary care and show that the framework can be used to support CPD in primary care and community pharmacy.

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