How might clinical pharmacists use a profession developed competency based self-assessment tool to direct their professional development?

Abstract

_Background_: The Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia (SHPA) created a clinical competency based self-assessment task (the shpa-clin-C-A-T) to be used by clinical pharmacists throughout Australia to assess their clinical competency and direct their professional development. _Aims_: The primary aim of this project was to investigate how clinical pharmacists might use the shpaclinCAT self-assessment tool to direct their professional development. Secondary aims included identifying barriers or challenges with the use of this tool to direct professional development, whether pharmacists differ in their approach to the self-assessment task based on their level of experience and to derive recommendations for revisions to this tool. _Method_: Three newly registered pharmacists and three experienced clinical pharmacists were conveniently selected to be part of this project. Due to the small sample size, this work was considered a pilot study. Each pharmacist attended a 20 minute semi-structured interview which explored the participant’s experience and the process undertaken to complete the shpaclinCAT self-assessment task. The principals of thematic analysis were used to code interview transcripts and to identify common themes. _Findings of the research_: The findings of this project suggest that the shpaclinCAT self-assessment tool provides benefit to less experienced pharmacists due to its general procedural nature. More experienced pharmacists however did not find the tool captured their current level of practice. Participants suggested that the length of the assessment tool, relevancy, difficulties with understanding terminology and completing the self-assessment as potential barriers to the use of this tool. _Conclusion_: This project provides further evidence of the importance of obtaining participant feedback when evaluating new assessment systems. It is recommended to target the use of this tool to less experienced pharmacists due to its general procedural nature. Further development of this tool is suggested to improve usability and its ability to direct professional development.