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University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy

Linda Gore Martin, Dean, University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy

The University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy (United States) used the GbCF as the basis for the redesign of our student learning outcomes. Other statements were used to fill in any perceived gaps. The various guidelines and lists were relatively consistent with GbCF. The school is now in the process of developing measurements for assessing all of these competencies.

Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monte Negro and Macedonia

Arijana Meštrović, Competency Development Manager, PharmaExpert

Croatia: A day symposium about competency development, self-assessment and CPD approaches was held in Zagreb (Society) with 90 participants. There were representatives from community pharmacy, managers, universities, and industry. From the evaluation form it was found that pharmacists are highly motivated to implement a competency based education plan on an individual and organisational level. Progress will be followed through implementing small projects in the organisations.

Educational plans and CPD based on a competency assessment, is currently used and planned across six pharmacy chains in Croatia representing more than 200 pharmacies (>20%) in the country.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: A two day conference was held in Sarajevo with international participation about assessing competency and applying a CPD approach for competency development. It was attended by 320 participants from different settings including: community and hospital setting, university, and government agencies. Representatives from Croatia (University), Serbia (community pharmacy), Montenegro (Chamber), Macedonia (Chamber, community pharmacy) presented their progress in competency based education implementation. The Pharmaceutical Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina took a lead role in the implementation of the GbCF at a national level. A three-day training programme for assessors in community setting who will serve on the national evaluation project in community pharmacies, will be held in September in Sarajevo. Many pharmacy chains or individual pharmacies are participating in the implementation of this project.

Similar conferences are scheduled for Serbia (Belgrade) and Montenegro (Podgorica) in October 2013 and Macedonia in 2014.

Montenegro: The GbCF was validated at the national level in

2012 to encourage CPD to be based on competency evaluation. It is in use in private pharmacy chains. Macedonia: The Pharmaceutical chamber is taking a lead in implementation of the GbCF at the national level, validated in 2012, in use in more than 20% of pharmacies. Initial results of this project (joint with Serbia and Croatia) were presented during the FIP Congress in Amsterdam and published in a poster at the APhA meeting in LA in 2013.

The GbCF is mainly used to detect educational needs, plan CPD on an individual basis, and at the organisational and national levels, as well as to raise motivation, as colleagues are motivated to start development according to international standards. Hence, the GbCF is in use for identifying variances and circumstances, as well as gaps in pharmaceutical care delivery.

Serbia

Dusanka Krajnovic, Belgrade University Faculty of Pharmacy

The GbCF document is well adapted to the Serbian pharmaceutical workforce and the implementation process of the GbCF document in some part of Serbia started in June 2012. A working group of the Pharmaceutical Chamber of Serbia is developing a national competency framework for the primary level of pharmaceutical care based on the GbCF. It is expected that the implementation process of the GbCF-based national framework into the regulation system will be in process in the near future. Currently, community pharmacists from the Subotica Pharmacy and several others healthcare institutions from the north part of the country have been using the culturally adopted version of the GbCF document for the evaluation and self-evaluation, and the assessment results will be analysed and published. One PhD thesis at the Belgrade University Faculty of Pharmacy is focused on the GbCF as an evaluation instrument.

Pacific Island Countries Andrew Brown, Assistant Professor, Discipline of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra

A lack of health personnel with the appropriate on-going competence is recognised as an impediment to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many Pacific Island Countries [8, 14, 24, 25]. There is a need in low-income environments to focus on medical supply chain education to be able to achieve the health related MDGs. A systematic approach to improving essential medicines supply management and workforce competence has begun in the region, with the aim to develop a Pharmacy Competency Framework identified as a priority [18, 19].

To meet this need a process of participatory action research involving academics, Ministry of Health officials and health