Dave Phillips
A brand new Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) ‘Professional development core curriculum’ has been launched at the 2018 International Pharmaceutical Federation Congress, held in Glasgow, Scotland, on 2–6 September 2018.
Speaking at the event, Paul Bennett, chief executive of the RPS, said that the Society was “delighted” to be launching the core curriculum alongside accompanying professional guides.
He said the curriculum would provide a “consistent approach to training and professional development activities” for pharmacists throughout their career, offering “comprehensive guidance for key knowledge, skills and behaviours from foundation to advanced practice, both core and expert and specialist”.
Bennett added that the curriculum’s launch aligned with the Society’s new mission to “put pharmacy at the forefront of healthcare, and to become the world leader in the safe and effective use of medicines”.
He went on to tell delegates that the content of the curriculum is the culmination of work that began in 2013 and was undertaken in collaboration with a large number of RPS-affiliated partner groups, accredited Foundations schools, expert groups and other partner organisations. He offered his thanks to all these colleagues for their time and expertise, and in particular to the RPS Curricula panel for stewarding the work over the past five years.
Looking to the future, Bennett warned that it was crucial for RPS professional development support to remain flexible and adaptable, given the ever-widening scope of practice of pharmacists in Great Britain and globally. To that end, a new RPS Curricula Group Subcommittee has been created to “ensure that the Society’s professional development curricula evolves to reflect current and anticipated needs of the workforce”. This subcommittee is chaired by Ian Bates, professor of pharmacy education at the School of Pharmacy, University College London, and education adviser to the RPS English Pharmacy Board.
The ‘Professional development core curriculum’ and professional development knowledge guides are available on the RPS website.
The 2018 FIP congress in Glasgow, Scotland, brings together pharmacy practitioners and pharmaceutical scientists from around the world to consider ways of extending the role of pharmacists so that they play a full part in ensuring patients, and health systems, achieve full benefit from the medicines people take.
The theme of the 78th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is ‘Pharmacy: Transforming outcomes!’.
This is the first time that the FIP World Congress has been held in the UK for nearly 40 years. The last time was in 1979, making this a truly unique learning opportunity for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists in Great Britain.
UK healthcare company RB is Gold Sponsor of this year’s congress.
