Development of pharmaceutical care competency framework in Chinese hospital pharmacist: a qualitative study in grade a tertiary hospitals

Abstract

Abstract Background With the increasing demand for pharmaceutical care and a shortage of clinical pharmacists, maximizing the capabilities of hospital pharmacists is essential for optimizing pharmaceutical care. This study aimed to construct a scientific and practical hospital pharmacist pharmaceutical care competency framework. Based on the talent needs of hospital pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical care, the framework can be used as a guidance for selecting talent hospital pharmacists. Methods A research group was established to undertake the literature review and behavioral event interview (BEI) for the construction of hospital pharmacist pharmaceutical care competency framework. Questionnaire survey was used to evaluate the framework and Cronbach’ s α coefficient was used to determine the reliability analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and validation factor analysis were used for the validity analysis. The weight score of each primary indicator was assigned using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Results Twenty-one hospital pharmacists had participated in the interviews. A total of 344 questionnaires were issued and 311 questionnaires were collected. The framework with six primary indicators, thirty-four secondary indicators and 134 tertiary indicators was established. Reliability analysis of the Cronbach’ s α coefficients of six primary indicators were all above 0.7, revealing high reliability. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire had good construct validity. The validation factor analysis revealed that the value of χ2/df was 2.899. Besides, the value of root mean square error of approximation is 0.078, and the values of nonnormal fit index, incremental fit index, tucker-lewis index and relative fit index were all greater than 0.8. These results indicated that the established framework had an excellent fitting degree. Results of AHP revealed that the weight score of support safe and rational medication, drug dispensing, communication and pharmaceutical monitoring, drug distribution, pharmaceutical research and transformation, and drug supply were 0.317, 0.228, 0.144, 0.181, 0.073 and 0.058 respectively. Conclusion Our study comprehensively established a hospital pharmacist pharmaceutical care competency framework, and the evaluation of the framework implied high reliability and validity. The framework can be used to provide theoretical and practical guidance for selecting and developing hospital pharmacist talents to provide pharmaceutical care in Chinese public hospitals.

Keywords

• Pharmaceutical care
• Competency framework
• Hospital pharmacist
• BEI
• Questionnaire survey