Society Confident That Profession Is Maintaining Skills And Knowledge - Royal Pharmaceutical Society Of Great Britain

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 16 Feb 2010 - 5:00 PDT


The regulation directorate of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is confident that the pharmacy profession is keeping its competencies, skills, and knowledge of best practice, actively up to date with the announcement that over 80% of registrants have achieved a rating of "excellent" in the first wave of its call and review Continuing Professional Development (CPD) assessment programme.

"Over 3500 records have been called for review since the system went live in July last year," says Janet Flint, the Society's lead for CPD. "Not only are we pleased to report the high standards of registrants' achievement in the overall assessment - over 80% of entries achieved a rating of "excellent" against the review criteria and a further 18% of entries achieved the "good" standard - but we are also pleased that over 80% of the records requested were submitted promptly within the specified time limits."

The Society's analysis of the data from the first six months of CPD call and review also revealed that:-
- The average number of entries submitted per record was 15
- The referral rate to the Chief Inspector for non compliance was 1.5%
- The average time between receipt of the record and review and feedback from the Society being despatched to the registrant was 27 days
- 3.5% of registrants subject to the call requested an extension to the time frame, with 75% of those requests being granted and a further 5% rescinding their original request

"CPD is a key tool which enables the profession to demonstrate its capabilities, professionalism and expertise, in a day and age where change is constant and innovation continuous meaning that the resulting challenges to pharmacy professionals have never been greater," comments Janet. "Evidence of CPD is likely to form a significant part of the requirements for the revalidation of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians when introduced to the profession in the next few years. By taking a formal approach now to CPD we are demonstrating publicly the standards which professionals are expected to attain and maintain.

This means not only that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have a framework to support their ongoing professional development, but also, and as a result, that the public can be reassured that it will receive the first class professional pharmacy practice it expects and deserves."

Notes

Standards and guidance for CPD under the Code of Ethics were approved by the Society's Council in February 2009 together with a policy for managing non-compliance. In April 2009 the Council agreed that the process of calling in and reviewing CPD records from practicing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians would begin in July 2009.

The Society's policy is that all practising registrants (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) will have their records reviewed over a five year period. The initial batch size to receive call and review was 100, and this subsequently increased to 400 per fortnight. In addition to random batches within selected geographical areas, the Society is intending to purposefully target those with additional responsibilities such as superintendent pharmacists, pre registration tutors and prescribers.

Non-compliance is dealt with through the Society's non-referral process. Those who do not submit their record when requested to do so are in breach of the Code of Ethics. If they admit to breaching the Code and agree to accept advice they will receive a letter of advice from the Chief Inspector. A record of the breach is kept for five years as part of the registrant's fitness to practise history. Repeated breaches due to failure to comply with the CPD standards are likely to be referred to the disciplinary process.

Those with genuine reasons for not being able to submit their CPD record to the Society by the submission deadline are able to request an extension from the Society's CPD team and are advised to contact the Society as soon as possible after receiving the call. All extension requests must be accompanied by appropriate evidence.

Source
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

• Additional
• References
• Citations