Developing a pharmacist preceptorship programme to support UK advanced level practice: a consensus study

Globally, health professionals are advancing roles to meet growing healthcare demands. Pharmacists are increasingly required to deliver autonomous, holistic, highly complex advanced care. Preceptorship could be used more widely to support delivery of advanced pharmaceutical care.

The aim of this study was to formulate statements describing features of preceptorship programmes, and to measure consensus in the Scottish pharmacy workforce on the applicability of these statements to an advanced pharmacist preceptorship programme.

Phase 1-formulation of statements relating to key features of healthcare preceptorship programmes through literature review and author expertise. Phase 2-modified nominal group technique (m-NGT) to add expert ideas to phase 1 statements and to reach consensus on statement wording. Phase 3-a two round modified Delphi (m-Delphi) survey to measure consensus in the Scottish pharmacy workforce on whether the features presented should be part of a Scottish advanced pharmacist preceptorship programme. Consensus agreement was set at 75% for m-NGT and m-Delphi.

Fifty-one statements were generated from literature. Seven statements were generated by authors. Three statements were generated by experts during m-NGT stage: 61 statements progressed to m-Delphi. After two rounds (n = 194 and 144 participants in round one and two respectively) of m-Delphi, consensus was reached on 48 of the 61 statements across categories including programme design, preceptor training requirements and programme assessment.

This study provides a strong basis for research into the impact of preceptorship programmes for pharmacists working towards the advanced career stage.