Pharmaceutical Policy and the Pharmacy Profession*

In this article, the authors look at the relationship between pharmaceutical policy and the pharmacy profession with focus on pharmacy practice and pharmacists in the health care sector. Pharmaceutical policy encompasses three major policy inputs: public health policy, health care policy and industrial policy. In order to analyse and understand pharmaceutical policy, it is important to know how policymakers view pharmacy and pharmacists. The authors look at the issues that arise when policy regulates pharmacy as a business, and what this means for the profession. The perspective of pharmacy as a health care profession, as well as what it means when we view pharmaceutical policy in the context of the health sector labour market, is discussed. The authors also discuss how factors external to the profession are affecting its purpose and realm of practice, including the current trend in managerialism, and how the division of labour with other health professionals such as physicians and pharmacy assistants is affecting the pharmacy profession’s position in the labour market. Next the authors look at ways in which the pharmacy profession has affected policy. Pharmacists have been instrumental in developing new and expanding roles for the profession, sometimes inspired by external events, but often as a result of their own prerogative. The pharmacy profession is encouraged to take a leading role in forming and contributing to policy, in this way making visible its contribution to society in general and public health in particular. If not, the profession will forever be reacting to policy and will remain at the mercy of policymakers and other strong actors in society. This article is the fifth in a series of articles on this topic that will appear in Pharmacy World & Science during 2005.     

Global Education Implications of the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination

Although the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) is not intended to measure educational outcomes or institutional effectiveness, it may be a reliable and valid criterion to assess the quality or success of international pharmacy programs. This comprehensive review describes the evolution and historical milestones of the FPGEE, along with trends in structure, administration, and passing rates, and the impact of country of origin on participant performance. Similarities between the FPGEE and the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) are also explored. This paper aims to provide a global prospective and insight for foreign academic institutions into parameters for evaluating their students'' educational capabilities.     

设立临床药学专业方向培养临床药师

临床药学教育以培养临床应用型药学人才为主要目标,随着我国经济的快速发展和医疗体制改革的不断深入,临床药师的需求量也在增大。因此,开设临床药学专业,培养临床药师,符合我国医药卫生事业发展的要求,也符合国际药学教育发展和药学学科发展的大趋势。结合新疆医科大学开设临床药学专业方向的实际,就本专业设置的必要性、办学层次、培养计划、课程设置、培养方向、毕业后工作模式等问题进行阐述,以期与教育同仁及相关人员交流。     

Cultural Competency in Health Care and Its Implications for Pharmacy

As the United States becomes more diverse, a patient's cultural influences on health outcomes and health care decision-making and delivery need to be considered. Cultural influences affect a patient's decision to take drug therapy and concomitant alternative therapies. Seven components have been identified to improve culturally competent care in a variety of practice sites. The first component to developing culturally competent practices involves the analysis of self and system attitudes and practices toward various cultures. In the second component, health care providers should increase their knowledge about the cultures they serve through different patient assessment techniques, readings, and community activities. The third component involves improving cross-cultural communication by being aware of differences in social norms, assessing health literacy, using interpreters, knowing another language, and using bilingual patient education materials. In the fourth component, pharmaceutical care plans should accommodate cultural preferences such as the use of herbs, spiritual healers, and additional family decision-makers. Therapeutic plans should be negotiated between patient and provider to optimize outcomes. The fifth component discusses health care provider and system involvement in the community through health fairs, ethnic festival participation, and communication with cultural decision-makers to help provide culturally competent care by fostering communication ties. In the sixth component, knowing and following regulations such as the federal Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services and the Joint Commission standards for organizational cultural competency can help enhance care for patients from various cultures. In the last component, quality assurance assessments of procedures to improve care for various diverse cultures should be conducted, with findings (in terms of strengths and areas of improvements) shared with other providers and systems. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in a variety of systems and practices can improve care to patients with differing cultures by using these seven components to enhance culturally competent care.     

A Model for Continuing Pharmacy Education

Objective

To develop and implement a continuing pharmacy education (CPE) program at Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO)

Design

To address the continuing education needs of its diverse pharmacy staff, an internal continuing pharmacy education (CPE) program was developed. The pharmacy department became an accredited provider by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Live, interactive, and evidence-based CPE programs, presented by highly qualified internal staff members, utilized videoconferencing and a Web-based learning management system. Cross-accreditation of medical and pharmacy educational programs was offered to KPCO staff members.

Assessment

Annual needs assessments were conducted to ensure the provision of relevant educational topics and to assess learning needs. To demonstrate outcomes of the CPE programs, 2 methods were utilized: objective effectiveness assessment and knowledge acquisition assessment. This program met the objectives for CPE activities a large majority of the time (usually over 90%), demonstrated statistically significant (p < 0.05) improvement in knowledge from before to after the CPE activity in 11 of 13 questions asked, and minimized the cost to acquire CPE credit for both the pharmacy department and its staff members.

Conclusion

The KPCO continuing pharmacy education program has developed a high quality and cost-favorable system that has resulted in significant improvements in attendee knowledge.     

欧美网上药店管制比较与借鉴

目的:为完善和规范我国的网上药店管制提供借鉴。方法:研究美国及欧洲各国网上药店管制特点,了解其管制模式、管制范围、管制手段,比较分析我国现存的问题。结果与结论:我国网上药店管制应解决政府管制与行业自律、国内管制与国际合作、药房管制与消费者教育等方面的问题。     

The Challenges of Pharmacy Education in Yemen

Pharmacy education in Yemen has faced many challenges since its introduction in the 1980s. Most Yemeni pharmacy schools, especially private ones, are experiencing difficulties in providing the right quality and quantity of clinical educational experiences. Most of these challenges are imbedded in a teaching style and curricula that have failed to respond to the needs of the community and country. The slow shift from traditional drug-dispensing to a patient-centered or focused approach in pharmacy practice requires a fundamental change in the roles and responsibilities of both policymakers and educators. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to discuss the challenges facing the pharmacy education in Yemen; (2) to provided recommendations to overcome challenges.     

The Past,Present, and Futurist Role of the Pharmacy Profession to Achieve Black Health Equity

Efforts to mitigate racial health inequities by the pharmacy profession are largely hollow. In recent years, the highly publicized murders of Black persons at the hands of police have become a worldwide rallying cry for institutions to make definitive statements that “Black Lives Matter.” The movement has, however, yet to manifest substantive institutional changes for entities to reassess the ways in which they, their methodologies, and their teachings have historically and contemporarily contributed to the dissolution of Black lives. The profession of pharmacy explicitly states it is committed to achieving optimal patient outcomes. However, teaching race as a socio-political construct is not an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) minimal standard requirement. This continued neglect is a disservice to the field and the communities served, and this informative article explores the role of pharmacy in perpetuating physical and psychological harm to patients within Black communities. Conflating race with ancestry and approaching race as a simple biological construction/predictor is misinformed, presumptuous, and simplistic, as well as physically and psychologically harmful to patients. Rather than default to racialized historical myths imbedded in contemporary society, pharmacy must answer the call and undertake definitive action to ensure comprehensive education to better care for Black communities. It is vital that schools and colleges of pharmacy actively seeks to correct curricular neglect based on negative, pseudo-scientific constructions of “race.” The field of pharmacy must understand its unique positionality within systems of power to adapt a wholistic and accurate view of race and racism to approach, achieve, and maintain health equity in the United States.