Medical DevicesPharmacy Preregistration Training Reviewed In First National Survey
Preregistration trainees and tutors in England, Scotland and Wales will be asked to take part in
the first ever national pilot survey on pharmacy preregistration training standards, this summer.
The project is a collaboration between the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
(RPSGB) and the University of Keele.
Funded by the Department of Health, the surveys are part of a programme of work informing
the transition of regulation to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the new regulator
for pharmacy.
Surveys of trainees and trainers in medicine have been conducted by the Postgraduate
Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) for several years but this is the first time a
survey of this kind has been undertaken nationally in pharmacy.
The findings are being used to measure the extent to which the standards for training are met
in practice, and to understand where preregistration trainees and tutors have further needs for
support and development.
RPSGB Head of Research and Development, Sue Ambler, said; "This is an important pilot as it
is the model of a potential future annual national survey of preregistration trainees and tutors to
be conducted once the GPhC is established in 2010.
"These results along with the final piloted questionnaires will be presented to and approved by
the Council of the GPhC when it launches its new standards for education and training early in
2010. It is anticipated that, as in medicine, the regulator will collect and analyse data routinely
to monitor implementation of its standards."
A team at Keele University, led by Professor Alison Blenkinsopp, is conducting the online
survey and each participant will receive an access code for it. Trainers and tutors in Yorkshire
and Humber, West Midlands, London, and South East England along with those in Wales and
Scotland are being asked to participate during July, once this year"s preregistration
examination has been completed.
The questionnaires have been developed with input from community, hospital, industrial and
academic pharmacy, the British Pharmaceutical Students" Association and patient
representatives.
A report into the findings of the survey will be completed by the end of this year and
recommendations will be made for future surveys.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain