THE Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) this morning confirmed the signing of an "historic agreement" with the UK's Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), with the organisations to collaborate on training and development opportunities mapped to pharmacist career stages in the UK and Australia.
The pact will see cooperation on "quality-assured education, training and development," including mutually accredited two-year advanced practice specialist residencies for pharmacists working in a range of areas.
SHPA president Michael Dooley said accreditation of advanced practice residency sites would commence in 2018.
"Building a workforce that can deliver a high standard of care across different settings and sectors - hospitals, community, care homes or general practice - while drawing on advanced knowledge of how to best manage complex patient needs is a shared goal of RPS and SHPA," Professor Dooley said.
RPS director Catherine Duggan said the partnership acknowledged research on international workforce co-development recently published in the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice.
"Working together will allow us to share expertise across defined areas of pharmacy practice, delivering mutually beneficial programs and services," she said.
Applications for the initiative will open in Oct 2018, with the first intake of pharmacists to the advanced practice residencies taking place in 2019.
Previous work by the International Pharmaceutical Federation has shown that at a foundation level there exists a common set of practice-related competencies that are globally applicable, Duggan said.
The partnership will build on the residency program launched last year by SHPA (PD 06 Sep 2016) and will provide the model for advanced practice residencies for the future, Dooley added.
"We look forward to progressing this exciting initiative over the next two years, broadening opportunities for Australian pharmacists who will have their SHPA credentials recognised in the UK, via the RPS, and vice versa.
"By committing to developing mutually accredited training and development programs we believe we can build a transformational model that could be adopted across many countries in the future," the SHPA president concluded.
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