Implementation of a pharmacist skill development "work-with" program.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy practice and clinical skills evaluation.
• Healthcare professional development and assessment.

Background:

• Ensuring patient safety and optimizing medication use requires pharmacists' clinical competency.
• Implementing competency assessments faces barriers, with limited existing literature.
• Assessing hospital pharmacists' clinical skills is crucial for quality healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a clinical competency assessment program for hospital pharmacists.
• To address the gap in literature regarding the implementation of pharmacist competency assessments.

Main Methods:

• Hospital pharmacists underwent competency assessments involving patient case presentations or care activities.
• Leadership evaluated performance using a competency rubric and provided feedback.
• Surveys assessed pharmacist and evaluator perceptions of feasibility and acceptability; rubric completion time measured feasibility; effectiveness was gauged against experience-based expectations.

Main Results:

• Twenty assessments were completed, with 50% exceeding the allocated time.
• Most participants found the assessments implementable, usable, and beneficial for professional development.
• Effectiveness data showed alignment with experience-based competency expectations for 50% of assessed competencies.

Conclusions:

• The competency assessment program is feasible and acceptable for hospital pharmacists.
• The evaluation rubric demonstrated moderate effectiveness.
• Key barriers to implementation included time constraints and defining success criteria; further enhancements are planned.