Pharmacy education and training in the hospital service in Wales: identifying demand and development capacity

Abstract

This study was initiated because of concerns that NHS hospital pharmacy departments in Wales had insufficient training capacity to deal with a predicted increase in training demand. The first aim was to develop an understanding of the need for the research, the second aim was to estimate training workload and capacity for work-based pharmacy training. The research then focussed on preregistration pharmacist training and first aimed to explore reasons for variations in training workload and then aimed to develop recommendations for practice that would optimise training capacity. Interviews obtained stakeholder opinion about the need for the study; a questionnaire obtained estimates of training workload and capacity; case studies were used to explore preregistration pharmacist training practices and a survey was used to develop strategies and recommendations for practice. Interviews and a group discussion were used to achieve a consensus about the adoption of the recommendations. All seventeen NHS hospital pharmacy training sites in Wales were included in the study. The study resulted in the development of twelve recommendations which were contained within three strategies aimed at optimising training capacity. The strategies were: ensure preregistration trainee pharmacists have appropriate levels of responsibility; ensure that the content and level of preregistration pharmacist training is appropriate; and ensure that effective use is made of existing training resource. If NHS hospitals in Wales implemented the recommendations for preregistration pharmacist training practices identified in this study, training workload should then be reduced and/or training quality maintained or improved which would lessen the impact of an increase in training demand on services.