Social Sciences and Humanities Open (Jan 2020)

The gap between competency self- evaluations and experienced pharmacists’ perceived competency evaluations regarding the Japanese 6-year pharmacy education programme

  • Kayoko Takeda Mamiya,
  • Kiyoshi Takahashi

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 1
p. 100050

Abstract

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Objective: To describe the need to create indicators or to use the competency framework of the Japanese six-year initial pharmacy education programme for the assessment of the programme from various viewpoints. Methods: A web-based survey of pharmacists who graduated from the previous four-year pharmacy education programme (experienced 4-YP pharmacists) and pharmacists who graduated from the six-year initial pharmacy education programme (6-YP pharmacists) was conducted, targeting 350 pharmacists (200 experienced 4-YP pharmacists and 150 6-YP pharmacists). Based on their perceptions, experienced 4-YP pharmacists and 6-YP pharmacists evaluated whether 6-YP pharmacists possessed the “Professional Competencies for Pharmacists”. The authors compared the 6-YP pharmacists’ self-perceived competency evaluations with the experienced 4-YP pharmacists’ perceived competency evaluations. Results: Regarding overarching competency as pharmacists (total competencies including competency 1–10 as pharmacists), the 6-YP pharmacists’ perceived competency self-evaluations were significantly higher overall than the experienced 4-YP pharmacists’ perceived competency evaluations (p ​< ​0.001 U test). The experienced 4-YP pharmacists’ perceived competency evaluations showed significantly stronger correlations between individual competencies and total overarching competency as pharmacists than the 6-YP pharmacists’ perceived competency self-evaluations. Conclusion: This research suggests that the gap of competency evaluations that exists between experienced 4-YP pharmacists and 6-YP pharmacists could also occur between pharmacists and patients or other health workers. Therefore, we must identify the underlying reasons for this gap based on quality assurance indicators or a competency framework, and we finally must advocate for the role of pharmacists in Japanese society in near future.

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