Opinion Survey in Heads of Hospital Pharmacy Regarding Competencies for Appraisal of Performance of Hospital Pharmacists

Abstract

Objective: To survey the opinions of the heads of pharmacy department regarding the competencies that should be used in evaluating the performance of pharmacists working in the hospitals under the Office of the Permanent Secretary. Ministry of Public Health. Method: Phase 1 used the Delphi technique with 7 experts to develop a questionnaire with a list of competencies that should be used to evaluate the performance of hospital pharmacists. Phase 2 involved sending the questionnaires obtained from phase 1 by surface mail to all 901 heads of the hospital pharmacy under the Office of the Permanent Secretary. The survey collected their agreement in using the competencies listed in the questionnaire to evaluate the performance of hospital pharmacists. Results: 333 subjects (37.0%) completed and returned the survey. Heads of the hospital pharmacy agreed that 9 out of 10 core competencies should be used in evaluating the performance of hospital pharmacists (average scores of agreement > 4.0 out of a full score of 5). Such core competencies included professionalism, morality and, ethics, service mind, teamwork and skills on human relations, achievement-oriented and communication. English language skills was core competency with the lowest agreement rating on their use (3.78±0.67 out of a full score of 5). The specific professional competencies that the heads of pharmacy departments agreed (scored more than 4) with their use in evaluating the performance of hospital pharmacists included pharmacy services (14 items with scores 4.20-4.76), pharmaceutical care (12 items with scores 4.05-4.56), drug management (10 items with scores 4.25-4.56) and drug information services (9 items with scores 4.05-4.46). Ten competencies on pharmaceutical production had a lower agreement rating than the others (3.88-4.00). However, heads of pharmacy department still agreed for their use. 82.58% of the heads of pharmacy departments agreed that the performance evaluation of hospital pharmacists should include appraisal of both core competencies and specific professional competencies. Most of them agreed that weight for each type of competency should be determined (87.69%), preferably through the meeting of supervisors within pharmacy departments (35.28%) or based on the proportions of work in each competency area (27.05%). 42.04% reported that the weight for core competencies to specific professional competencies should be 40:60. Conclusion: Hospital departments can use the competencies identified in this study for constructing a framework for pharmacist's performance assessment that is appropriate to the hospital context and is acceptable by pharmacists.