Reforms in pharmacy education and opportunity to practise clinical pharmacy

Abstract

The impact on 357 newly licensed pharmacists, graduates of two colleges, of efforts to tum pharmacy into a clinical profession, was examined by way of a self-administered questionnaire.Perceptions and expectations about work, differences in consulting practices, relationships between practice and attitudes, and the presence or absence of an identifiable general value orientation (which could account for spedfic perceptions and attitudes), were examined. Results indicated that hospital practice was more likely to be associated with clinical pharmacy and clinical pharmacy practice was more likely to meet the expectations of recently graduated pharmacists. In addition, 52 per cent of the community-based pharmacists were found to engage in patient counseling, as compared with 39 per cent of hospital-based pharmacists. Newly licensed pharmacists are deepening the existing divisions in the profession, while moving toward a revision of their place in the health care delivery system.

A conceptual framework toward identifying and analyzing challenges to the advancement of pharmacy

“…4 Pharmacists are continuously faced with increasinglydemanding and complex healthcare needsand advancing technologies,forcing them to constantlyre-evaluate their current practice modelsand envision future ones. 22 According to Birenbaum 23 ,these continuous efforts to upgrade and develop the status of pharmacy within changing health care environments is referred toas reprofessionalization.Reform drives in the name of reprofessionalization have become a recurring feature of literature; the topic is examined through several lenses such as extending practice roles 20,24,25 , advancing educational models [26][27][28] , and reviewing existing regulatory systems. 29,30 Birenbaum concedes that theoretical frameworks "fail to recognize the interactive and contextual nature of the development of the professions".…”