Insights from Regulatory Data on Development Needs of Community Pharmacy Professionals

Abstract

The aim of this study was to use data available to a Canadian health professions regulator (Ontario College of Pharmacists) to identify areas of opportunity where practitioners (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) could benefit from further development, in order to optimize practice and improve the quality of care. Four de-identified datasets were used to extract themes from areas of jurisprudence (1969 exam records), member practice assessments (2610 records), pharmacy assessments (2024 records) and conduct (640 case records). Outcome measures included performance in examinations and assessments and competency gaps identified in conduct investigations. Thematic analysis of outcomes was done in two stages. First, the four outcomes were derived independently for each dataset. Second, the top five issues were extracted for each dataset. It was hypothesized that common themes in competency gaps across all four datasets would emerge from this top five selection. We found three main common areas of opportunity where practitioners could benefit from further development: patient assessment and safety; documentation; and ethical, legal and professional responsibilities.