Quality Management in Pharmacy Pre-registration Training: Current Practice

Background: The Royal Pharmaceutical Society conducted a review of pharmacy education policy in its ‘Making pharmacy education fit for the future’ project. The future quality management of pharmacy pre -registration training was included within the scope of the review. Aim: To identify and review practice examples of quality management in current pharmacy pre-registration training programmes, in England, Scotland and Wales. Methods: Mixed methods including documentary analysis, a survey of pharmacy pre-registration stakeholders, and individual interviews. Results: The questionnaire was sent to 27 organisations in total; responses were received from all 27. Twelve respondents (9 secondary care, 2 community pharmacy, 1 industry) reported having developed standards in addition to the RPSGB standards that their training programmes were required to meet. Quality management tools used by pharmacy pre-registration training providers included site visits and tutor and trainee questionnaires. Conclusion: This paper describes some the tools of quality management that have been adopted and developed by providers of pharmacy pre-registration training. It has identified pockets of good practice, but there is a clear need for a national quality management system in pharmacy pre-registration training.