Browsing by Subject "General Level Framework"

During the past few decades the focus of the pharmacy profession has shifted from medicinal products towards ensuring the welfare of the patient. The concept of pharmaceutical care emphasizes that the role of the pharmacist is to ensure the quality and safety of pharmaceutical therapy in collaboration with the patient. The concept of clinical pharmacy, on the other hand, highlights that the pharmacist should take the responsibility of the efficiency, safety and cost efficiency of the patient's pharmaceutical treatment together with other health-care professionals. Patient centered pharmacy services have been increased in Finnish hospitals and health care-centers during the last 10 years, for example, in the form of pharmacy services provided on the wards. Previous studies have shown that Finnish hospital pharmacists want to develop and increase clinical pharmacy services in hospitals but feel they are not competent enough to manage them. To develop and increase the number of clinical pharmacy services it is important to ensure the pharmacy professionals have support to their continuing professional development. The General Level Framework (GLF) has been developed in the UK to support the professional development of pharmacy professionals and its value has been shown in various studies. The aim of this study was to give information of the state of Finnish hospital pharmacy and its development needs as perceived by Finnish hospital pharmacists, and to investigate how the GLF can be utilized in Finnish hospital pharmacy. The study was conducted using two different research methods: a semi-structured interview was designed to investigate hospital pharmacists' perceptions of hospital pharmacy, it's development needs and utilization of the GLF; in addition, hospital pharmacists selfassessed their clinical pharmacy related competencies using the GLF. All of the participants of the study were participants of a clinical pharmacy course by University of Helsinki. In total 11 hospital pharmacists took part in the interview. Also 41 pharmacists self-assessed their competencies in clinical pharmacy using the GLF: eight of them completed the self-assessment twice with a six month period between the assessments. The interviewed pharmacists felt that the pharmacy curriculum should focus more on the skills and competencies needed in hospital pharmacy. On the other hand, they felt that the tasks of hospital pharmacists did not necessarily allow them to use their actual knowledge of pharmacy. They perceived that the future of hospital pharmacy lies in services of clinical pharmacy, although they felt that they were not competent enough to manage them. The GLF self-assessment showed that the clinical competencies of the participants were average, and there was no change in the competence of the participants during the six month period. However, the interviewed pharmacists felt that the GLF can be used as a tool for support the hospital pharmacists' professional development and continuing professional development in clinical pharmacy. They also perceived that there is a need for further studies on the clinical pharmacy services and their benefits, and that the task distribution of health care professionals in hospitals must be re-considered. With these actions, the challenges hindering the development and increase of clinical pharmacy services in Finnish hospitals could be overcome. They described that the greatest challenges to overcome were prejudices against pharmacist working on the wards and a lack of resources. In order to develop and increase clinical pharmacy services in Finnish hospitals and other health-care organizations further reseacrh on the benefits of clinical pharmacy should be conducted. It must also be ensured that all health-care professionals and decision makers are aware of the studies already made about clinical pharmacy and its benefits. The skill-mix of health care professionals taking part in a patient's treatment must be reconsidered in order to ensure that the patient receives the best, most efficient and safest possible medicinal care. The GLF can be used as a tool to define the role of a clinical pharmacist in Finland. There is a need for more clinical pharmacy education so that Finnish pharmacists can feel competent enough to manage clinical pharmacy tasks. The GLF can be used as a tool to support the professional development and continuing professional development also in Finland.