There has been a general agreement that the time is right for the professional body to take the lead and work with the profession to create standards and frameworks around advanced and specialist practice, including accreditation and awarding titles or levels of membership. Advanced and specialist practice should be separated because they are different, but covered within the same project.
The work needs to appeal to the wider pharmacy population, so those working on the projects will look at community pharmacy as a potential area for advanced practice, in addition to developing standards for accrediting areas of specialist practice. Two clear phases have been identified:
Phase 1
The aim of phase 1 is to define the structure, framework and governance to enable the professional body to assess and accredit advanced and specialist practice. This would include, for example, setting up the functions of the general and specialist curriculum committees referred to in the Transitional Committee’s prospectus.
Phase 2
Phase two has several key aims:
- To look at the existing frameworks & build on what exists across the profession
- To create standards by which the professional body can provide accreditation
- Explore potential for one framework for general, specialist & advanced practice
- To provide consistency for each specialism of advanced practice across GB
Future developments
A great deal of work has been already done by the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA) and specialist clinical groups. The professional development workstream will now carry this forward for the benefit of the profession and the reference group will meet at a series of workshops in 2009 and 2010. A key criterion for success will be the involvement of as wide a representation as possible to ensure its relevance across the whole profession.
There are already over 50 people on the reference group, representing over 60 groups and we are continuing to seek representation from as many areas of pharmacy as possible.
The time commitment is determined by participants, who will be consulted on the outputs from the workstream. It is up to those on the reference group to choose their level or area of involvement. Participants will be invited to workshops; attendance is optional.
People taking part in this work will have the advantage of being among the first to hear what is going on and to have a chance to shape the output. Members who want to become involved in the reference group should contact carol.evans@rpsgb.org
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