Clinical Pharmacy in Galle Sri Lanka, Collaboration and Friendship

Abstract

Pharmacy undergraduate courses in Ruhuna, while is more practice focus than many of the other courses in Sri Lanka, it is still missing clinical pharmacy elements. Collaboration between academic staff from Ruhuna University and two international clinical pharmacy academics was established in 2014. The aim of this paper is to report on a clinical pharmacy training program, delivered by the international academics and supported by the Sri Lankan academics to pharmacy students in 2015-2016. After short conceptualization lecture on each topic, there was a workshop which was structured as team case-based learning progressive case studies. Topics included mental health, pharmacokinetics, interpreting laboratory results, parenteral drug compatibility, special hospital compounding and medication review, of which all were assessed in the final examination. A student found the team based learning to be engaging and enabled them to independently and critically think in a safe environment and preferable over the traditional lectures.

Perception Towards the Standardization of Competency Assessment Tools Among Clinical Pharmacists in the Philippines

“…[11][12][13] It is in this regard that having a standard tool or set of tools are considered important, where it can ensure a standardized method of evaluation of competencies across the different levels or areas of experiential learning. 6,14 Considering the respondents' experience of being former trainees and for a majority, being preceptors for younger clinical pharmacy trainees, examining their perceptions on how competency evaluation should be done is certainly of importance. Based on the results, respondents believed that actual competency assessment tools for student evaluation are necessary (89.7%), with actual clinical competencies clearly identified for proper assessment (87.2%); 71.8% agreed that engagement in the first year should be incorporated in the curriculum.…”

“…15 Figure 5 lists down the important competency skills for a clinical pharmacist as recommended by the ACCP. 5 Due to multiple factors, there are still areas of improvement that need to be addressed in the field of clinical pharmacy education; nevertheless, it can only be made possible if the clinical pharmacists have proper training and capacity 14,16 and the percentages gathered are the same once a standard assessment tool is generated comprehensive clinical pharmacy education and training tool is in the place. 17 With regard to the respondents' experience in clinical pharmacy education, the majority (94.7%) believed in the important role of partnership between hospitals and universities in the assessment of students' clinical skills.…”

“…A comprehensive clinical pharmacy education and training needed 17 as well as set of guidelines may be established concurrent with the standardization of the present clinical pharmacy curriculum to ensure that essential competency skills are enhanced during the pre-employment learning process. 14,15…”