Relevance to Practice of Pharmaceutical Public Health Competency Framework for Thai Pharmacists

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relevance to real world practice of the pharmaceutical public health competency framework for Thai pharmacists developed in previous study through scoping review of literature and expert review for its validity. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study in 394 pharmacists across Thailand’s pharmaceutical supply chain was conducted using online questionnaires between April and July 2023. The subjects rated the relevance to real practice of the pharmaceutical public health competency framework on 4-point scale from 1 (non-relevant) to 4 (very relevant). The framework consists of five competency groups, 17 competencies, and 54 behavioral competencies. Subgroup analysis among pharmacists with different work focus was conducted to determine their differences in relevancy rating. Results: Overall rating of the pharmaceutical public health framework demonstrated moderate relevance with mean score of 2.90 ± 0.67 out of the full score of 4. The most relevant competency group was “communication for health promotion” (3.48 ± 0.70), followed by “individual and family health promotion” (2.89 ± 0.74), “information and evidence-based practice” (2.78 ± 0.86), “pharmacoepidemiology and support for public health emergencies and epidemics” (2.70 ± 0.95), and “community empowerment for well-being” (2.68 ± 0.85). Pharmacists with a product focus in their job had significantly lower mean of relevance scores than the other groups. Most behavioral competencies were judged as relevant for both entry and advance-level pharmacists (94.44% of behavioral competencies). Conclusion: The relevance to the practice of the developed pharmaceutical public health competency framework varies depending on practice focus. Results from this study provides input for formulating competency for Thai pharmacists to engage effectively with the Thai public health system.