1. Specialist or Advanced Generalist Pharmacist?
Medlinskiene, K. MRPharmS, PG Diploma (Hospital) | Preece, D. MRPharmS, PG Cert
Introduction
Results
The current hospital pharmacist career progression through foundation pharmacy framework (FPF) to the Advanced/Consultant pharmacy framework (APF/CPF) is described as horizontal differentation1 (Fig.1). Recently a greater need of advanced generalist pharmacists was emphasised by Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (Eng.), and supported by professional bodies such as the RPS and the UKCPA2. This challenges status quo by implying vertical differentiation1 and raises a question: is becoming an advanced generalist considered as a career option by hospital pharmacists?
The literature review did not identify articles that explored hospital pharmacists views on their career progression focusing on this aspect. Only articles defining horizontal and vertical pharmacist career progression were found.
Survey results:
53 respondents, including 33 foundation hospital pharmacists
Respondents worked at Teaching Hospital or Foundation Trust (31), District General Hospital (19), Mental Health Trust (2), and Private Hospital (1).
Numbers of different rotations ranged between 1 and 10+ with most common being 1, 5 or 10+ rotations.
Types of rotations were very varied. Most common (>40% of respondents) were surgery, care of elderly, medicine information, and paediatrics.
The most positive responses were for general surgery, care of elderly, cardiology, oncology and medicine information rotations. Reasons for favouring these rotations were pharmacist impact on patients’ care, integration in multidisciplinary team working, and learning opportunities.
Foundation Pharmacist
Clinical Diploma (FPF)
Rotational Pharmacist
APF/CPF
Specialist Pharmacist
Figure 1. Traditional hospital pharmacist career progression.
Aim and Objectives
“Surgery, medicine & renal - wide variation, interesting, pharmacists have a greater role with other healthcare professionals, significant interventions and excellent learning opportunities”
This work aims to explore the views of current hospital pharmacists on becoming specialist or advanced generalist pharmacists.
Method
“Surgery - it is a very vast area and one where pharmacists can have a very important impact on patient care”
This study did not require ethics approval and the method is summarized in the Fig.2.
“cardiology so far lots of opportunities to input”
Literature review conducted by using databases to identify current knowledge on hospital pharmacy career progression:
MEDLINE (MeSH): [pharmacists], [hospital], [career choices]
EMBASE (emtree): [hospital pharmacist], [career], [specialist]
Literature Review
38 respondents completed questions related to specialist and advanced generalist careers.
Majority agreed that specialist (33) and advanced generalist (34) knowledge was important.
18 respondents aimed to become specialist, 9 advanced generalist pharmacists and the rest were not sure.
Reasons for becoming specialist pharmacist were an interest in a specialist area, career progression, salary, intention to do research, availability of jobs, and/or personal development.
An online survey questionnaire with a total of 10 questions was designed to include both quantitative and qualitative questions
The survey was piloted with 8 foundation pharmacists and slight changes were made to the final survey.
Survey
(via Survey Monkey)
Discussion and Conclusions
The survey was launched via and social media during the 9th May th June 2016.
Analysis was conducted by descriptive and comparative statistical method.
This survey indicates that hospital pharmacists generally seek to become specialist pharmacists in their careers. However, new emerging roles, e.g. general surgery pharmacists, will require advanced generalist pharmacists and thus a more clearly defined career structure is required to encourage more hospital pharmacist to choose advanced generalist career. The main limitation of the study was a relatively small number of respondents.
Data collection and analysis
Figure 2. Summary of methodological process.
Acknowledgment: We thank Ann Page for her guidance.
Contact information: Kristina Medlinskiene
David Preece,
References
Clair-Jones, A. and Quinn, J. Support for specialist and advanced practice and recognising the differences. The Pharmaceutical Journal. 2010; 284:
Ridge, K. Keynote Lecture: Pharmacy and the 5 year forward view. UKCPA Autumn Symposium 2015.