E-drug: Community service for young pharmacists (cont'd)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an important issue for all professions not just pharmacists.
How do we ensure the standards of competency at the time of
registration with the profession and maintain that competency while
remaining registered.
Firstly it presupposes that there is some form of registration process
taking place, which in turn requires that there is some form of
governing body. That governing body, a pharmacy council for
example, is usually responsible for setting the standards of education,
practice, and discipline for the profession.
The standards of education are enacted through the accreditation of
courses of instruction for people wishing to enter the profession as
well the need for 'pre-registration' training between the end of
institutional learning and the entry to the profession. It is this total
package which brings the competency to the professional.
By definition this 'pre-registration' training cannot be left to chance or
to the whims of different professionals. It requires to be structured by
the governing body and delivered by professionals who have been
assessed as suitable to provide such training and in establishments
that will meet the needs of the training. In UK, for instance, this is a
one year process and is a very well structured and organised. Only
after successful completion of this training can a person be registered
and adopt the title of 'pharmacist'.
Of course all of this takes effort and organisation by the profession. It
is inappropriate to leave this to the universities, but in making that
effort the profession will be forced to examine itself and address the
issues identified in the previous correspondence, thereby
strengthening its standards and ethics.
What I am not sure about is how this equates to 'internships'
described elsewhere, but perhaps one way of looking at this is to
accept the situation (notwithstanding the debate on the ethics of
'forced labour' etc) and say how can we use it to best advantage as a
training process as well as meeting the healthcare needs of the
country? Structured community service may be one answer.
Tim Dodd
Training Advisor
Ghana National Drugs Programme
E-mail: Cath_and_Tim_Dodd@compuserve.com
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.