E-DRUG: International Health Workforce Conference: proceedings now available (2)
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Dear Katrin,
Thank you for your message. Little research has been done on the
pharmacy workforce and more research is needed in areas as diverse as
retention and distribution of workforce, professional development, skill
mix for the provision of pharmaceutical services, workforce planning,
pharmacy education, migration of pharmacists and return migration, and
training institution capacity development. Until we have a broad
evidence base on pharmacy workforce issues, it will be difficult to move
forward towards effective human resource planning in countries.
FIP launched a report in 2006: Global Pharmacy Workforce and Migration
Report: a Call for Action (downloadable from www.fip.org/hr) which will
give you some background information on the subject. This report for
the first time brings together data on pharmacist workforce distribution
and documents issues such as workforce shortages and increasing
international migration to provide a snapshot of the global pharmacy
workforce. There has been limited attention focused towards how the
capacity of the pharmacy workforce can be developed to manage workforce
shortages and enable effective human resource planning that meets the
health needs of countries. Following on from this report, we are
currently undertaking several streams of research and policy work:
1. 2008 Pharmacy workforce report update: global data to be gathered from June - December 2007
a. Pharmacist workforce distribution
b. Pharmacy technician distribution
c. Pharmacy workforce and practice policies
d. International pharmacist migration
e. Continuing Professional Development systems
f. Pharmacist competencies
g. Pharmacist roles and practice development
2. International pharmacist migration: data gathered over 2006 - 2007
a. Root drivers of migration, migration trends, opportunities to
strengthen pharmacist workforce capacity in sending countries - pilot
study of 9 countries completed, further study with 20 countries planned
for May - July 2007 (collaborative project with International
Pharmaceutical Students' Federation)
3. FIP-WHO Pharmacy Education Taskforce Objectives: plan of action spanning 2007 - 2009
a. To quantify the required pharmacist and other pharmacy cadre
workforce levels required to provide essential pharmaceutical services
and care.
b. To codify data on academic/faculty workforce and training
capacity and to develop models that will enable the scaling up of
education at national level.
c. To provide advocacy and technical expertise to countries and
training institutions for the scaling up of pharmacy education and human
resources for health planning.
d. To launch a functional platform for ongoing dialogue, sharing
of best practices, resources and tools for pharmacy education and human
resources planning.
e. To develop global guidelines for standards, accreditation and
quality of pharmacy educational provision.
f. To define and clarify pharmacy practitioner competencies
across all settings in relation to country level health, market and
workforce needs and other health care workers.
g. To match pre-service educational needs against these
competencies and examine the role of continuous professional
development.
h. To facilitate stakeholders to move towards an accepted vision
for pharmacy education at both global and local levels.
4. Country case study for pharmacy workforce development: 2007 - 2008
a. Zambia - qualitative study
Feel free to contact me personally if you would like to discuss this
further, I would be happy to go into more detail. It would be
wonderful to see more research in the areas that I have mentioned.
Indeed we certainly need more ears and hands on board!
Best regards,
Tana Wuliji, Pharmacist
Project Coordinator
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
PO Box 84200
2508AE Den Haag
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-70-302-1970
Mobile: +44-779-0936-091
Fax: +31-70-3021999
Email: tana@fip.org
Website: http://www.fip.org/>
The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global
federation of national organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical
scientists dedicated to improving the access to and value of appropriate
medicine use worldwide, and contributing to changes in science, practice
and health policies worldwide.