Evaluation of Pharmaceutical Workers’ Professional Potential in Health Protection of Citizens on the Basis of the Multicriteria Approach

Abstract

Relevance: Public health protection is the main principle of the development of a civilized society. At present, health protection issues are considered extremely important in our country. There is an obvious need for pharmaceutical specialists to participate as «team members» of the health system in the implementation of state tasks to strengthen and preserve the health of society, which is stipulated by international requirements for the organization of pharmaceutical care and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of the study is defined as an evaluation of the professional potential of pharmaceutical specialists in the implementation of state tasks aimed at health protection of citizens. Materials and methods: The professional potential of pharmaceutical workers was evaluated on the basis of the analysis and systematization of the results of a survey of 414 pharmaceutical workers from various regions of the Russian Federation. In the work, non-parametric methods of statistical analysis were used to compare the average ranks of the responses of the respondents determined during the analysis of variance, and a two-sample t-test to compare the differences in the shares of respondents that agree with one statement or another. Differences were accepted as significant at p <0.05. Formation of the factors determining the health-saving competence and the level of preparedness of pharmaceutical personnel for health protection activities was determined by the expert assessment method. The number of experts was 32 (representative> 15). Results.Phasedmulticriteriaanalysisofthecomponentof healthprotectionimplementationintheorganizationofpharmaceutical care showed that the professional capacity of the pharmaceutical personnel in health protection of citizens depends on socio- demographic data (factors) of specialist (according to the criteria of education, pharmaceutical experience and position), the legal characteristics of the pharmacy - the foundation of pharmaceutical activity performance (criteria: form of ownership, belonging to a pharmacy chain). It is revealed that the most promising cohort for introducing the principles of health protection are pharmacists with pharmaceutical experience from 10 to 20 years, who have demonstrated the highest level of competence in public health protection, high awareness in the implementation of labor functions focused on the prevention of pharmacotherapeutic risks and have shown sufficient readiness to implement organizational technologies aimed at the formation and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Based on the results of the analysis, the expert evaluation of the analyzed criteria has been done, the factors having the greatest weight in the formation of professional predictors, aimed at health protection during the provision of pharmaceutical care have been revealed and the coefficients to evaluate the professional capacity of the pharmaceutical personnel in the protection of the health of the population have been formed: Coefficient of health protecting qualification and personal competence (Cqualification), Coefficient of readiness for health protecting activities (Creadiness). Conclusion. The formation and evaluation of the professional potential of the pharmaceutical workers’ in relation to activities aimed at preserving and strengthening the health of citizens is of significant importance for the effective self-fulfillment of a specialist in the profession, which must be taken into account when developing educational programs at all stages of training and professional development of employees. The multi-criteria approach developed and tested by us to evaluate the professional potential of the pharmaceutical personnel is appropriate and advisable for designing of personnel development programs in pharmacy organizations, personnel evaluation systems and analysis of the effectiveness of the methods used in-house training.