Pharmacy Preregistration Training Reviewed In First National Survey

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 29 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Preregistration trainees and tutors in England, Scotland and Wales will be asked to take part in the first ever national pilot survey on pharmacy preregistration training standards, this summer.

The project is a collaboration between the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and the University of Keele. Funded by the Department of Health, the surveys are part of a programme of work informing the transition of regulation to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the new regulator for pharmacy.

Surveys of trainees and trainers in medicine have been conducted by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) for several years but this is the first time a survey of this kind has been undertaken nationally in pharmacy.

The findings are being used to measure the extent to which the standards for training are met in practice, and to understand where preregistration trainees and tutors have further needs for support and development.

RPSGB Head of Research and Development, Sue Ambler, said; "This is an important pilot as it is the model of a potential future annual national survey of preregistration trainees and tutors to be conducted once the GPhC is established in 2010.

"These results along with the final piloted questionnaires will be presented to and approved by the Council of the GPhC when it launches its new standards for education and training early in 2010. It is anticipated that, as in medicine, the regulator will collect and analyse data routinely to monitor implementation of its standards."

A team at Keele University, led by Professor Alison Blenkinsopp, is conducting the online survey and each participant will receive an access code for it. Trainers and tutors in Yorkshire and Humber, West Midlands, London, and South East England along with those in Wales and Scotland are being asked to participate during July, once this year's preregistration examination has been completed.

The questionnaires have been developed with input from community, hospital, industrial and academic pharmacy, the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association and patient representatives. A report into the findings of the survey will be completed by the end of this year and recommendations will be made for future surveys.

Source
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain