How should we prepare pharmacy graduates for a world in which the only certainty is change?

Abstract

Pharmacists contribute to patient care in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent healthcare landscape. Clinical decision making is growing more complex and more diverse, despite technology-enabled systems to assist with the vast amount of new knowledge. We find that as practice evolves, the profession is forced both to consider how we enhance generic graduate capabilities and how to recognise disciplinary expertise and perspectives. This demonstrates the scale of the challenge facing schools of pharmacy today; correspondingly, it suggests the need for the profession to look ahead collectively, something the Pharmacy Forecast Australia project has endeavoured to facilitate, with its key findings presented in this issue of the JPPR.1 Technological advances will continue to have far reaching consequences not only at an individual level but also for society more generally. Amid these changes, the future of health and health care must be person-centred and socially accountable, focused on maintaining well-being. It should be enabled by digital transformation, increased availability of data, and steered by higher public expectations for accessible healthcare. Increasingly, to address chronic health concerns, patients require more complex medicines taken over longer periods of time and these current and evolving trends offer workforce challenges and opportunities to deliver high quality care now and in the future. Because of this, pharmacists and the pharmacy profession more broadly have an important and increasing role in ensuring safety and quality of care. Appraising the evidence base and applying clinical reasoning and professional judgement which optimise outcomes and minimises risk for the person are core competencies for pharmacists. Any role, whether remunerated or not, in which the individual uses their skills and knowledge as a pharmacist in their profession. Practice is not restricted to the provision of direct clinical care. It also includes working in a direct, non-clinical relationship with clients; working in management, administration, education, research, advisory, regulatory or policy development roles; and other roles that impact on safe, effective delivery of services in the profession.2 The need for pharmacists working closely with patients, their carers, and other members of the healthcare team is also recognised in our National Medicines Policy, and in the inclusion of Medicine Safety as a National Health Priority Area. A look through the lens of future health care and the healthcare system identifies the broader societal need for interprofessional, collaborative healthcare teams where pharmacists play a prominent role in fostering patient-centred care. The future of health care demands interprofessional teams, which requires pharmacists to bring their expertise to the team to address the diverse and complex healthcare needs of our society. Successful interprofessional communication enables pharmacists to engage in collaborative practice sharing their skills and knowledge with other health professions and clinicians to influence clinical decisions and enhance outcomes from medicines. Further, leadership development is a critical component of programs of study leading to registration and included in the accreditation standards. Leadership is required across the system – including development of the technical pharmacy workforce – and necessarily involves management of financial and human resources, health economics, clinical governance, and health informatics. As for today’s leaders, collaborative efforts between universities and our professional and clinical stakeholders to prepare the profession for tomorrow – with Pharmacy Forecast Australia a key example – are our best chance at sustaining and improving our overall contribution to patient care in a world in which the only certainty is more change. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.