E-drug: Community service for young pharmacists (cont'd)
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Hi all,
Just to clear some possible confusion: Tim Dodd wrote:
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.
Currently South African pharmacists must complete a 4-year BPharm
degree AND a 1-year internship before registration. The internship
must be completed in an approved pharmacy, in terms of an approved
contract between the intern and the pharmacist tutor. Tutors are
provided with some guidance by the SA Pharmacy Council, as are the
interns - the "programme" can therefore be considered to be some-
what structured, although the exact experience will vary. Internships
may be completed in retail pharmacies, hospitals (state or private),
manufacturing concerns or universities (this involves the student
completing at least Masters degree). In the last two categories
(industry and academic internships), the intern also has to complete a
minimum number of hours in a patient care setting (usually a retail
pharmacy). The issue of assessing competence has been addressed -
for a couple of years the Council has been trying out a pre-registration
examination system. All interns have been required to write this exam
(involving a general section and one specific to the area in which they
have served their internships). The idea is to have a final "hurdle" prior
to registration. Problems have been experienced, not least with
differing expectations (and hence exam standards) in the different
settings. The jury is still out on that one!
Continued competence is yet another burning question - the 1997
Pharmacy Amendment Act allows the Council to develop
criteria/processes for re-registration but a practical solution is still
being sought. The draft Regulations (currently under debate) also
allow for the internship to be incorporated into a 5-year, university
managed programme.
Community service on the other hand is just that - service, not
training. This 'hurdle' is a matter of repaying the State for the
investment in university training, although the experience gained will
be invaluable. It is not unique to pharmacy, having been introduced for
medical graduates and (from July this year) for dentists. The plan is to
extend this to all health professionals, and perhaps others (such as
lawyers). The problem is still one of supervision - newly qualified
pharmacists (degree + internship +/- pre-registration competency
assessment) will in all likelihood be placed in under-served areas. They
might be the only pharmacists in their hospitals, and might also have
to take responsibility for the development of good drug management
practices in primary care settings outside the hospital (clinics,
community health centres and mobile points).
Anyone interested in pharmacist:population ratios and the challenges
in SA can look at the Technical Report to Chapter 10 of the 1998 SA
Health Review entitled "The Production and Distribution of Human Re-
sources in Pharmacy" (see http://www.hst.org.za/sahr/98/Pharmacy/).
It can also be obtained in pdf format:
(ftp://www.healthlink.org.za/pubs/SAHR/1998/pharmacy.pdf).
The chapter itself (or the entire publication) can also be viewed or
downloaded in pdf format.
Also watch this site for the 1999 Health Review, which launches next
week.
regards,
Andy Gray
Co-ordinator: Drug Management
Initiative for Sub-District Support
email: andy@healthlink.org.za
Tel: +27 31 2044358 Fax: +27 31 2044792
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