Definition of professionalism and tools for assessing professionalism in pharmacy practice: a systemic review

In contemporary pharmacy, the role of pharmacists has become more multifaceted as they now handle a wider range of tasks and take more responsibility for care provision for patients than 20 years ago. Such an evolution in the pharmacist's responsibilities is accompanied by the need for pharmacists to display high-quality patient-centred care and counselling, and to demonstrate professionalism, which now needs to be taught and assessed are part of pharmacy education and practice. This workaimed at identifying definition of professionalism in pharmacy practice and critically evaluatingpublished instruments for assessing professionalism in pharmacy practice.

We searched the medical literature listed in Scopus, Medline, andPsycINFOdatabasesfrom 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2018. All papers meeting our selection criteria, were reviewed and summarised into a clear review of professionalism requirements in pharmacy practice. Details of the instruments measuring professionalism were reviewed in detail.

There is no accepted simple definition of professionalism, although we identified several theoretical and policy frameworks required for professional pharmaceutical practice. We identified 4 instruments (Behavioural Professionalism Assessment Instrument (BPAI), Lerkiatbundit's Instrument, Pharmacy Professionalism Instrument (PPI) and Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) that build on these frameworks and measure professional practice in pharmacy students. These were found to be reliable and valid but had only been used and tested in student populations.

Given the increasing role of community pharmacisits there is a need for assessment of professionalism in practice. Professionalism is a complex concept that is challenging to measure because it has no standardised definition and existing literature related to the topic is limited. Current instruments available focus on measuring the development of the elements of professionalism among pharmacy students rather than pharmacists.