An International Professional Mandate: Pharmacy Clinical Competency

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to submit a manuscript for the Special Issue on “An International Professional Mandate: Pharmacy Clinical Competency” in the journal Pharmacy. Pharmacy (ISSN 2226-4787) is an international scientific open access journal on pharmacy education and practice published quarterly online by MDPI. The journal is indexed by PubMed, ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index), and Web of Science. Furthermore, Pharmacy is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Therefore, submissions are peer-reviewed rigorously to conform to the highest standards.

Pharmacy is a skills-based profession based on the acquisition and application of knowledge and aptitude. The quest for clinical competency starts with formal education and must be pursued for one’s entire professional career. Patients are at risk of injury if their care-givers are incompetent in every profession. However, as the need for this Special Issue suggests, the state-of-the-art of pharmacy professional and clinical competency warrants a careful examination and a thoughtful look into the future. Nor is clinical competency problematic for individual or less developed countries.

The overall goal of this Special Issue on “International Clinical Competency” is to give the reader a synopsis of contemporary pharmacy and pharmacist clinical competency. It is being designed to share innovative ideas for definition, identification, improvement, and possibilities for educational and postgraduate training now and into the future. To accomplish this goal, we seek papers that address the social, political, legal, clinical, and economic factors that are associated with the acceptance, delay and resistance in adoption of standards for pharmacy and pharmacist clinical competency; historically, now, and in the future.

This Special Interest Issue begins with topics relevant to clinical competency assurance in pharmacy education. For example, what are the positive and negative consequences of the trend towards pass/fail in advanced and introductory pharmacy practice experiences and entrusted professional activities (EPAs) in the US; strengths and weaknesses of different international licensure requirements and protocols; meeting standards for readiness to practice upon graduation; sufficiency of licensure to assure clinical competence of new graduates; assurance of student skills and testing of student competency in education, and trends away from clinical internships to incorporating practice experiences into the PharmD and Masters educational programs? When is a country ready to transition from internships or apprenticeships to incorporating supervised experiences into the educational programs?

With respect to postgraduate clinical competency, there is no accepted international definition of competency. However, should there be given the diversity of practice settings and needs? Clinical competency is often justified as being “in the eye of the beholder”. However, is the reliability and validity of professionals’ assessments assured? Is every beholder’s assessment reliable and valid? From a legal and regulatory perspective, who has been and should be responsible for oversight of clinical competency? Should there be requirements for residencies for pharmacists with direct patient care or local or global postgraduate testing as with board certification? What is the international status regarding research and standardization on clinical competency in education and in postgraduate practice; especially given the globalization of practice and potential for international licensure transfer? Are known methods sufficient to assure competency? For example, will continuing professional development (CPD) ensure professional competency given the plethora of local and global definitions of clinical competency? Clinical competency is not just a less developed country issue. How does and should competency differ with different practices throughout the world. How can less developed countries inform more developed countries in areas of strength of practice and direct patient care? What lessons have been learned by those authorities struggling with definition, identification, and assurance of clinical competency?

For the Special Issue on “International Pharmacy Clinical Competency”, we seek a full breadth of manuscripts including, but not limited to: (1) reviews, (2) commentaries, (3) idea papers, (4) demonstration and research studies, (5) and case studies.

As an example, you may wish to take a look at previous Special Issues: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmacy/special_issues

If the Special Issue publishes more than 10 papers, the publisher will print a book edition. The book would be made available, in digital format (for free) and paperback copies (ordered via Amazon) on the MDPI platform (http://books.mdpi.com).

Thank you for considering this invitation.

Prof. Dr. L Douglas Ried
Prof. Dr. Craig D. Cox
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmacy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.