Transition training for Pharmacist's moving into General Practice

Alison Bullock and Sophie Bartlett from the CUREMeDE team, alongside Kate Spittle from Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), recently published an article in the journal, BMJ Open.

The article, titled ‘I thought it would be a very clearly defined role and actually it wasn’t’: a qualitative study of transition training for pharmacists moving into general practice settings in Wales, focused on the evaluation of a one-year training programme in Wales to support pharmacists, who have previously worked in hospital or community settings, transition to working in the general practice environment. The paper explores the needs of pharmacists’ as well as the barriers and enablers to their integration.

Alison and Sophie, with key support from Kate, conducted a series of focus groups and telephone interviews with pharmacists enrolled on the programme in 2018/19 and their educational tutors. Data was collected from participants on two occasions: midway through the one-year programme and at the end of the programme.

The article concludes that pharmacists faced some barriers to integrating into general practice settings but that the formal training programme with a designated tutor helped towards facilitating this transition. Where the pharmacist role in such a setting is relatively new, there is poor understanding of their role and scope of practice from the wider general practice team. The one-year transition programme however was structured around a competency framework which facilitated reciprocal understanding of the pharmacists’ role and encouraged interprofessional collaboration.

The article concludes with a series of recommendations and points to consider for pharmacists, general practice professionals and educators supporting transition.

The full text of the article is available at BMJ Open.