How Do European Pharmacy Students Rank Competences for Practice?

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Professional Competences
• Healthcare Workforce

Background:

• Defining core competences is crucial for pharmacy practice and education.
• Understanding perceptions of these competences among students, educators, and practitioners is vital for curriculum development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the perceived importance of personal and patient care competences among European pharmacy students, academics, and community pharmacists.
• To identify similarities and differences in competence rankings across these key stakeholder groups.

Main Methods:

• A survey was conducted with 370 European pharmacy students, 241 academics, and 258 community pharmacists.
• Participants ranked 68 personal and patient care competences across 13 clusters relevant to pharmacy practice.

Main Results:

• Overall ranking profiles were generally similar across students, academics, and community pharmacists.
• Students, particularly final-year ones, demonstrated strong alignment with community pharmacists on patient care competences.
• Students and academics ranked industrial pharmacy, drug preparation quality, and scientific fundamentals higher than community pharmacists.

Conclusions:

• Pharmacy education appears to align well with the perceived needs of practice, especially concerning patient care.
• Discrepancies in rankings highlight potential areas for curriculum adjustment, particularly in industrial and scientific aspects of pharmacy.
• This study provides a unique comparison of competence perceptions between educators, students, and working professionals in pharmacy.