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Pharmacist perceptions of patient care competency: A survey in Vietnam

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Abstract

Context: In order to perform effectively in professional practice, a pharmacist should demonstrate crucial competencies on delivery of patient care. Aims: To evaluate current pharmacists’ perceptions on their delivery of patient care competencies. Methods: The evaluation divided into 8 domains of competencies with 35 behavioral statements was distributed to hospital and community pharmacists. Respondents were asked to self-evaluate their competencies on a four-point Likert scale. Results: Of 207 responses returned, there were 106 hospital pharmacists and 89 community pharmacists. The mean score ranged from 2.2 to 3.5. Respondents perceived themselves as the most competent in “Drug Specific Issues” and “Provision of drug product” cluster (3.5 ± 0. 68, 3.3 ± 0.84, respectively), whereas the lowest performance was noted in “Patient Consultation” and “Evaluation of Outcomes” (2.8 ± 1.01 and 2.8 ± 0.88, respectively). Pharmacists demonstrated the best performance in the behavioral statements pertaining to the “Appropriate route is ensured” (3.6 ± 0.63). The two behaviors with the lowest performance were “Recording Consultations” (2.2 ± 1.02) and “Record of contributions” (2.7 ± 0.93). There were no statistically significant differences in the competence cluster scores in terms of types of pharmacists, sex, age, education level, years of experience (p>0.05). Conclusions: This research represents the first self-assessment of Vietnamese pharmacists in patient care practice. Areas for additional professional education which were determined include recording patient consultation, obtaining patient consent, prioritization of drug-related problems, referrals to doctors, and assessment of patient outcomes.
© 2021 Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmacognosy Research, 9 (1), 69-77, 2021
ISSN 0719-4250
http://jppres.com/jppres
Original Article
_____________________________________
Pharmacist perceptions of patient care competency: A survey in
Vietnam
[Percepciones de los farmacéuticos sobre la competencia en el cuidado del paciente: una encuesta en Vietnam]
Vo T. Ha1,2, Tang V. Hai1, Ngo M. Xuan3, Nguyen T. L. Huong4*
1Faculty of Pharmacy, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh, V-70000, Vietnam.
2Department of Pharmacy, Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, Ho Chi Minh, V-70000, Vietnam.
3Faculty of Medicine, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh, V-70000, Vietnam.
4Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Ha Noi, V-100000, Vietnam.
*E-mail: huongntl@hup.edu.vn
Abstract
Resumen
Context: In order to perform effectively in professional practice, a
pharmacist should demonstrate crucial competencies on delivery of
patient care.
Aims: To evaluate current pharmacists’ perceptions on their delivery of
patient care competencies.
Methods: The evaluation divided into 8 domains of competencies with 35
behavioral statements was distributed to hospital and community
pharmacists. Respondents were asked to self-evaluate their
competencies on a four-point Likert scale.
Results: Of 207 responses returned, there were 106 hospital pharmacists
and 89 community pharmacists. The mean score ranged from 2.2 to 3.5.
Respondents perceived themselves as the most competent in “Drug
Specific Issues” and “Provision of drug product” cluster (3.5 ± 0. 68, 3.3
± 0.84, respectively), whereas the lowest performance was noted in
“Patient Consultation” and “Evaluation of Outcomes” (2.8 ± 1.01 and 2.8
± 0.88, respectively). Pharmacists demonstrated the best performance in
the behavioral statements pertaining to the “Appropriate route is
ensured” (3.6 ± 0.63). The two behaviors with the lowest performance
were “Recording Consultations” (2.2 ± 1.02) and “Record of
contributions” (2.7 ± 0.93). There were no statistically significant
differences in the competence cluster scores in terms of types of
pharmacists, sex, age, education level, years of experience (p>0.05).
Conclusions: This research represents the first self-assessment of
Vietnamese pharmacists in patient care practice. Areas for additional
professional education which were determined include recording
patient consultation, obtaining patient consent, prioritization of drug-
related problems, referrals to doctors, and assessment of patient
outcomes.
Contexto: Para desempeñarse eficazmente en la práctica profesional, un
farmacéutico debe demostrar competencias cruciales en la prestación de
atención al paciente.
Objetivos: Evaluar las percepciones de los farmacéuticos actuales sobre
su prestación de competencias de atención al paciente.
Métodos: La evaluación dividida en 8 dominios de competencias con 35
declaraciones de comportamiento se distribuyó a los farmacéuticos
hospitalarios y comunitarios. Se pidió a los encuestados que
autoevaluaran sus competencias en una escala Likert de cuatro puntos.
Resultados: De 207 respuestas devueltas, había 106 farmacéuticos de
hospital y 89 farmacéuticos comunitarios. La puntuación media osciló
entre 2,2 y 3,5. Los encuestados se percibieron a sí mismos como los más
competentes en el grupo de Problemas específicos de medicamentos y
Suministro de medicamentos (3,5 ± 0,68, 3,3 ± 0,84, respectivamente),
mientras que el rendimiento más bajo se observó en Consulta del
paciente y Evaluación de Resultados (2,8 ± 1,01 y 2,8 ± 0,88,
respectivamente). Los farmacéuticos demostraron el mejor desempeño
en las declaraciones de comportamiento correspondientes a la “Se
garantiza la ruta adecuada” (3,6 ± 0,63). Los dos comportamientos con
menor desempeño fueron “Registro de consultas” (2,2 ± 1,02) y
“Registro de contribuciones” (2,7 ± 0,93). No hubo diferencias
estadísticamente significativas en las puntuaciones del grupo de
competencias en términos de tipos de farmacéuticos, sexo, edad, nivel
educativo, años de experiencia (p>0,05).
Conclusiones: Esta investigación representa la primera autoevaluación de
los farmacéuticos vietnamitas en la práctica de atención al paciente. Las
áreas de educación profesional adicional que se determinaron incluyen
el registro de la consulta del paciente, la obtención del consentimiento
del paciente, la priorización de los problemas relacionados con los
medicamentos, las derivaciones a los médicos y la evaluación de los
resultados del paciente.
Keywords: competency; education; pharmacist; self-assessment; Vietnam.
Palabras Clave: autoevaluación; competencia; educación; farmacéutico;
Vietnam.
ARTICLE INFO
Received: August 3, 2020.
Received in revised form: October 7, 2020.
Accepted: October 8, 2020.
Available Online: October 18, 2020.
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 70
INTRODUCTION
Certain pharmacy competencies are important
for students to acquire before graduation and for
practitioners to maintain throughout their profes-
sional practice to effectively provide pharmaceuti-
cal care and ensure patients’ outcomes (Mann et
al., 2018). In recent years, the role of pharmacists
has changed significantly over the period. Phar-
macists are not only experts in discovering and
developing drugs. They are also required to pro-
vide patients’ healthcare services such as patient
education and counseling, as well as discussing
drug therapy issues with physicians and nurses.
To perform effectively in professional practice, a
pharmacist should demonstrate crucial competen-
cies in delivering patient care.
However, pharmacy education on patient care
in Vietnam is still limited. Most pharmacy educa-
tion programs in Vietnam offer a broad framework
without specific orientations. The programs allow
students to get competences in all five fields: (1)
pharmaceutical industry, (2) drug quality assur-
ance, (3) pharmacoeconomic and administration,
(4) traditional medicine and pharmacognosy, and
(5) pharmacology and clinical pharmacy (Vo et al.,
2013). Some other pharmacy programs provide
specific orientation programs for students to
choose. The training path is different from other
countries; when students complete their 5th year
successfully and graduate, they go directly into
practice in health settings without an approved
internship or national license examination. Some
clinical pharmacy training weaknesses consist of
insufficient time for training, lack of high-quality
rotations in a hospital or community pharmacy,
and lack of lecturers who practice in health care
settings.
In recent years, pharmacists’ core competency
frameworks have been developed to navigate the
education and training of practitioners (Interna-
tional Pharmaceutical Federation, 2012; Pharma-
ceutical Society of Australia, 2016). While no single
model may be appropriate for all cultures and con-
texts, the General Level Framework (GLF) was
developed by the Competency and Education De-
velopment Group (CoDEG) in the United King-
dom has shown as a reliable and useful tool to
facilitate the evaluation of competency of the gen-
eral pharmacist practitioners (CoDEG, 2007).
No studies have been published in Viet Nam
regarding pharmacists’ competencies related to
patient care, making it difficult to change educa-
tion programs for pharmacists to perform excellent
healthcare services. As a result, we conduct this
study to evaluate current pharmacists’ perceptions
of their delivery of patient care competencies, de-
fine gaps, identify problems and needs of educa-
tion and other training programs.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Questionnaire development
The first section of the questionnaire contained
questions about respondent’s demographic infor-
mation, included the respondent’s age, gender,
year of graduation, highest level of education, area
of practice, year of practice. If one works as a hos-
pital pharmacist, it is important to fill in years of
experience, hospital’s bed number and location. As
for community pharmacists, we require infor-
mation regarding years of experience, the average
number of patients being served daily, and phar-
macy’s location.
The second section contained questions on
pharmacists’ perceptions of their patient care
competencies. To achieve an adequate understand-
ing of pharmacists’ perceptions of their perfor-
mances, we have adopted a survey method, which
we find most appropriate to gather insights into
our assumptions. The evaluation standards were
based on the patient care competencies of the GLF
by CoDEG (2007).
The original English version of CoDEG was
translated into Vietnamese by two professors of
clinical pharmacy and two pharmacy students,
who are familiar with the medical terms covered
by the document and knowledgeable of English-
speaking culture.
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 71
The second section was divided into 8 domains
of competencies with 35 behavioral statements.
Respondents were asked to self-evaluate their
competencies on a four-point Likert scale, based
on how frequently a certain behavior was demon-
strated in their everyday practice: (1) Never (0 to
20% of the time); (2) sometimes (21 to 50% of the
time); (3) regular (51 to 84% of the time); or (4)
always (85 to 100% of the time). If the behavior
was not relevant to a respondent’s practice, it was
categorized as “not-applicable.”
Data collection
Afterward, we provided it into an online survey
by using Google Forms, which was then distribut-
ed on a Facebook fan page (Vietnam network of
clinical pharmacists “Nhp cu Dược lâm ng)
in November 2019. “Nhp cu Dược lâm ng fan
page, which was found in January 2014 for con-
necting Vietnamese clinical pharmacists and shar-
ing academic information, has above 40.000 fol-
lowers in the moment of the survey and its website
(nhipcauduoclamsang.com). Respondents were
pharmacists who worked in hospital and commu-
nity pharmacies who were asked to self-evaluate
by using the survey. To ensure a high response
rate, the survey instrument was published five
times online as a reminder.
Ethical issues
The study was conducted ethically according to
the National guide for ethics in biomedical re-
search and was approved by the Faculty of Phar-
macy, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine.
Participants were informed of the researchers’ pro-
file, the objective of the survey and asked for writ-
ten consent before participating in the survey. Par-
ticipation in the study was completely voluntary,
and all collected information was anonymous and
used only for research purposes.
Statistical analysis
Each self-evaluation was recorded on an Excel
sheet. Data were anonymized and transferred
from the Excel database on to the R software for
analysis. Independent t-test was used to analyze
the differences in performance levels between two
groups of pharmacists with different characteris-
tics. Statistical significance was placed on any p-
value that was less than 0.05 for a two-sided test.
RESULTS
Characteristics of respondents
After one month of collecting data, 207 re-
sponses were returned. However, among the re-
ceived results, we did not analyze twelve since
they did not have a bachelor degree in pharmacy
or higher. There were 106 hospital pharmacists
and 89 community pharmacists. Table 1 summa-
rizes the demographic information of 195 re-
spondents. The average age of the pharmacists
was 33 years old. Pharmacists were predominantly
female (65.6%). Out of all the respondents, 19.5%
held a postgraduate qualification. A total of 84.1%
of respondents had been in practice for 10 years or
less. In terms of hospital’s capacity, 84.9% an-
swered that their hospitals had 1000 beds or less.
Self-assessed competencies
The mean scores on 35 behavior competencies
are shown in Table 2. The results illustrate that the
mean score ranged from 2.2 to 3.5. Overall, re-
spondents in this study perceived themselves as
the most competent in the Drug Specific Issues
and “Provision of drug product” cluster (3.5 ±
0.68, 3.3 ± 0.84, respectively), whereas the lowest
performance was noted in the Patient Consulta-
tion and Evaluation of Outcomes cluster (2.8 ±
1.01 and 2.8 ± 0.88, respectively). From the 35 be-
haviors analyzed, pharmacists demonstrated the
best performance in the behavioral statements per-
taining to the “Selection of dosing regimen: Ap-
propriate route is ensured (3.6 ± 0.63). The two
behaviors with the lowest performance were “Re-
cording Consultations” (2.2 ± 1.02) and “Record of
contributions” (2.7 ± 0.93). There were no statisti-
cally significant differences in the competence
cluster scores in term of types of pharmacists
(hospital or community pharmacist), sex (female
and male), age (≤30 and >30), education level
(bachelor and post-graduate), years of experience
(≤10 and >10) (p>0.05).
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 72
Table 1. Characteristics of respondents (n = 194).
Characteristics
Hospital
% (n = 106)
Community pharmacy
% (n = 89)
Total
% (n = 195)
1. Gender
Male
35.8 (n = 38)
32.6 (n = 29)
34.4 (n = 67)
Female
64.2 (n = 68)
67.4 (n = 60)
65.6 (n = 128)
2. Age (years)
≤30
51.9 (n = 55)
41.6 (n = 37)
47.2 (n = 92)
31-40
37.7 (n = 40)
40.4 (n = 36)
39.0 (n = 76)
41-50
7.6 (n = 8)
13.5 (n = 12)
10.2 (n = 20)
≥51
2.8 (n = 3)
4.50 (n = 4)
3.6 (n = 7)
3. Year of graduation
1981-1990
0.9 (n = 1)
1.1 (n = 1)
1.0 (n = 2)
1991-2000
3.8 (n = 4)
7.9 (n = 7)
5.7 (n = 11)
2001-2010
18.9 (n = 20)
14.6 (n = 13)
16.9 (n = 33)
2011-2019
76.4 (n = 81)
76.4 (n = 68)
76.4 (n = 149)
4. Highest education
Bachelor degree
73.6 (n =78)
88.8 (n = 79)
80.5 (n = 157)
Master degree
25.5 (n = 27)
10.1 (n = 9)
18.5 (n = 36)
PhD degree
0.9 (n = 1)
1.1 (n = 1)
1.0 (n = 2)
5. Years of experience
0-10 years
80.2 (n = 85)
88.8 (n = 79)
84.1 (n = 164)
11-20 years
15.1 (n = 16)
6.7 (n = 6)
11.3 (n = 22)
21-30 years
3.8 (n = 4)
4.5 (n = 4)
4.1 (n = 8)
>30 years
0.9 (n = 1)
0 (n = 0)
0.5 (n = 1)
DISCUSSION
Recently, the Minister of Health has just pub-
lished the first official documents on “Basic Com-
petency Standards for Vietnamese Pharmacist” in
October 2019 (Vietnam Minister of Health, 2019),
in which competencies has 8 clusters: professional
and ethical practice, communication and coopera-
tion competence, organization and management,
quality assurance of drug, drug manufacturing,
drug provision, optimal drug use. These compe-
tency standards focus more on soft skills and pa-
tient care, which the current pharmacy education
program does not meet in undergraduate pro-
grams (Vo et al., 2013). The reasons are: lack of
time for training on patient care topics, skills
learned mainly in classroom or skills laboratories
(skill-lab) but not commonly in hospitals and
pharmacies, and lack of lecturers who had pro-
found knowledge and experiences on clinical
pharmacists.
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 73
Table 2. Self-assessed competencies’ mean scores.
Competencies
Mean
relevance
score (SD)
A. Patient consultation
2.8 (1.01)
1. Patient assessment: Uses appropriate questioning to obtain relevant information from the
patient
3.1 (0.87)
2. Consultation or referral: Pharmaceutical or health problems are appropriately referred
3.0 (0.86)
3. Recording consultations: Documents consultation where appropriate in the patient’s records
2.2 (1.02)
4. Patient consent: Satisfactorily obtains patient consent if appropriate
2.8 (1.04)
B. Need for the drug
3.1 (0.90)
5. Relevant patient background: Retrieval of relevant and available information
3.1 (0.90)
6. Drug History: documents an
accurate and comprehensive drug history when required
3.1 (0.90)
C. Selection of drug
2.9 (0.85)
7-9. Drug-drug interactions
Drug-drug interactions are identified
3.0 (0.81)
Drug-drug interactions are appropriately prioritized
3.0 (0.82)
Appropriate action is taken
3.0 (0.82)
10-12. Drug patient interactions
Drug-patient interactions are identified
2.9 (0.87)
Drug-patient interactions are appropriately prioritized
2.9 (0.85)
Appropriate action is taken
2.9 (0.86)
13-15. Drug disease interactions
Drug-disease interactions are identified
2.8 (0.83)
Drug-disease interactions are appropriately prioritized
2.9 (0.87)
Appropriate action is taken
2.9 (0.89)
D. Drug specific issues
3.5 (0.68)
16. Ensures appropriate dose: Appropriate dose is ensured
3.5 (0.68)
17-18. Selection of dosing regimen
Appropriate route is ensured
3.6 (0.63)
Appropriate timing of the dose is ensured
3.4 (0.69)
19-20. Selection of formulation and
concentration
Appropriate formulation is ensured
3.4 (0.70)
Appropriate concentration is ensured
3.5 (0.70)
E. Provision of drug product
3.3 (0.84)
21.The prescription is clear: Ensures the prescriber’s intentions are clear
3.4 (0.69)
22. The prescription is legal: Legality of prescription is ensured
3.5 (0.75)
23-24. Labeling of the medicine
The label on the dispensed medicine includes the re-
quired information
3.5 (0.69)
Dispensed medicine is labeled appropriately for the
patient
2.9 (1.03)
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 74
Table 2. Self-assessed competencies’ mean scores (continued)
Competencies
Mean
relevance
score (SD)
F. Medicines Information and patient education
3.1 (0.86)
25. Public Health: Provides lifestyle advice appropriately
3.2 (0.86)
26. Health Needs: Takes into account the patient’s individual circumstances
2.9 (0.96)
27. Need for information is identified: Patient need for information is accurately identified
3.0 (0.85)
28. Medicines Information: Accurate and appropriate medicines information is communicated
3.3 (0.71)
29. Provision of written information: Appropriate information is provided
3.1 (0.83)
G. Monitoring drug therapy
2.9 (0.87)
30. Identification of medicines management problems: Medicines management problems are
identified
2.8 (0.88)
31. Prioritization of medicines management problems: Medicines management problems are
accurately prioritized
2.9 (0.87)
32. Use of Guidelines: Current clinical guidelines are applied as appropriate
3.0 (0.86)
33. Resolution of medicines management problems: Appropriate action is taken to resolve or
refer medicines management problems
3.0 (0.82)
34. Record of contributions: Appropriate documentation of the intervention is completed
2.7 (0.93)
H. Evaluation of outcomes
2.8 (0.88)
35. Assessing outcomes of contributions: Outcomes of contributions are appropriately assessed
2.8 (0.88)
The pharmacy schools in Vietnam have been
going through a process of formulating the learn-
ing objectives for the curriculum. The Ministry of
Education and Training requires each school to
publish “competency standards for graduated
students” publicly on each school website. How-
ever, there was some question about the capacity
of the schools, at present, to train the students to
the skill levels defined by the school. To answer
this question, some methods of evaluation of com-
petency applied were: written traditional methods
[Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)], short and
long assays, assessment of clinical skills Objective
Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), Objective
Structured Practical Examination (OSPE), short,
long cases, Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise
(Mini-CEX), self-assessment, peer assessment, and
other tests (log-book, open-book exams, seminar)
(Ibrahim et al., 2015). In this study, self-assessment
of pharmacists made it possible to identify dis-
crepancies between what the teachers expected
and what the students thought they had achieved.
This information is useful for formulating the re-
vised learning objectives.
Clinical pharmacy first developed in Vietnam
in the 1990s, but the most recent development in
the sector is the Ministry of Health’s release of the
Guidelines on Clinical Pharmacy Practice in Hospitals
in 2012 and the Good Pharmacy Practice Principles
and Standards for Community Pharmacies in 2011
(Viet Nam’s Ministry of Health, 2010) to encourage
and develop clinical pharmacy activities for pa-
tient care in hospital and community. The regula-
tions clearly state that pharmacists should imple-
ment medication dispensing and counseling ser-
vices. However, the study found that “Patient
Consultation” and “Evaluation of Outcomes” were
the worst two competence clusters of pharmacists.
Indeed, the literature on pharmacy performance in
Vietnam indicated that community pharmacists in
the country ask a few and insufficient questions
before they dispense medications. A study showed
that 52% of community pharmacists did not pose
inquiries before providing advice (Pham et al.,
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 75
2013). Research also revealed that only 35.3% of
pharmacists specified instances that warrant a visit
to a physician (Pham et al., 2013). Written infor-
mation is essential as a supplement and rein-
forcement to verbal information when verbal in-
teraction is insufficient in educating a customer
(Hamrosi et al., 2014). A national survey of hospi-
tal clinical pharmacy services in 39 hospitals in
Vietnam in 2018 (Trinh et al., 2018) found that
most activities were non-patient-specific (87%)
while the preliminary patient-specific clinical
pharmacy services were available in only 8/39
hospitals (21%). The most common non-patient-
specific activities were providing medicines in-
formation (97%), reporting adverse drug reactions
(97%), monitoring medication usage (97%). The
patient-specific activities varied widely between
hospitals and were limited. The main challenges
reported were a lack of workforce and qualified
clinical pharmacists.
Of the 65 behaviors analyzed, some behaviors
demonstrated a need for significant improvement,
including “Recording Consultations” and “Record
of contributions”. A national survey on medication
review in 48 Vietnamese hospitals in 2016 (Vo and
Hoang, 2019) found that 12.5% of the hospitals did
not conduct any medication review (MR) docu-
mentation and there were only 8 hospitals built the
specific tools to support MR. Therefore, Vo et al.
(2020) developed and validated a tool called Vi-
Med® for use in supporting MR in Vietnamese
hospitals in which pharmacists can document their
interventions to physicians. The literature yielded
numerous tools for the classification and docu-
mentation of drug-related problems and pharma-
cist interventions (van Mil et al., 2004), improving
pharmacists’ competence in recording their patient
care activities.
Pharmacists had the highest competences in
Drug Specific Issues(including Ensures appro-
priate dose/dosage/route”) and Provision of
drug product” (including “Ensures clear and legal
prescription” and Labelling of the medicine”),
but had lower competences in “Selection of drug”
and “Monitoring drug therapy”. These findings
were similar to those of the study of Rutter et al.
(2012) in which they used the GLF to evaluate and
facilitate performance improvement in hospital
pharmacists in Singapore.
There was no statistically significant difference
between pharmacists in different sectors (hospital
vs. community), age, gender, education level, and
experience year. This result showed that the com-
petency among pharmacists was quite equal and
similar. In contrast, the study of Austin et al. (2004)
found that pharmacists who were educated out-
side Canada or the United States, those in com-
munity pharmacy practice, and those who had
been in practice 25 years or more demonstrated
the greatest difficulty in meeting patient care
standards.
These findings need to be taken into account
when conducting a new pharmacy education pro-
gram for pharmacists. We should design specific
education modules on topics in which pharmacists
are still incompetent, such as recording patient
consultation, obtaining patient consent, prioritiz-
ing drug-related problems, referrals to doctors,
and assessing patient outcomes. In other studies,
the GLF was used as a useful tool for facilitating
self-reflection, providing a platform for feedback,
and planning needs-based learning under the
guidance and accountability of a more experienced
practitioner (Rutter et al., 2012). Ensuring sustain-
able clinical pharmacy practice necessitates appro-
priate and continuous training. Correspondingly,
multi-faceted interventions should be implement-
ed covering issues such as innovation of content
and method of teaching and learning, strict as-
sessment and supervision, change of license re-
quirement, building up networks of clinical phar-
macists for training, and systematic management
by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health (Pham et al.,
2013).
Limitation
Although self-assessment is not a reliable
measure of real achievement of competency, it was
not feasible to carry out a more objective assess-
ment such as OSCE. Therefore, we asked pharma-
cists to assess themselves to report their true per-
ception as feedback to the teachers to help im-
prove the learning objectives and teaching (Hoat et
Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 76
al., 2008). Another limitation is that the research
did not collect pharmacy schools’ names of phar-
macists who responded while pharmacy schools'
names are different. Each pharmacy school should
focus on evaluating their own graduated students’
competency.
CONCLUSIONS
This research represents the first self-
assessment of Vietnamese pharmacists in patient
care practice. Areas for additional professional
education were determined by recording patient
consultation, obtaining patient consent, prioritiz-
ing drug-related problems, referrals to doctors,
and assessing patient outcomes.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank pharmacists for participating in
the survey. No funding was available for this study.
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Vo et al.
Pharmacists’ patient care competency
http://jppres.com/jppres
J Pharm Pharmacogn Res (2021) 9(1): 77
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION:
Contribution
Ha VT
Hai TV
Xuan NM
HuongNTL
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Definition of intellectual content
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Citation Format: Ha VT, Hai TV, Xuan NM, Huong NTL (2021) Pharmacist perceptions of patient care competency: A survey in Vietnam. J
Pharm Pharmacogn Res 9(1): 6977.
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International Pharmaceutical Federation (2012) FIP Education Initiatives: Pharmacy Education Taskforce A Global Competency Framework -Version 1
  • N K Ibrahim
  • B M Al-Sharabi
  • R A Al-Asiri
  • N A Alotaibi
  • W I Al-Husaini
  • H A Rakkah
  • R M Turkistani
Ibrahim NK, Al-Sharabi BM, Al-Asiri RA, Alotaibi NA, Al-Husaini WI, Al-Khajah HA, Rakkah RM, Turkistani AM (2015) Perceptions of clinical years' medical students and interns towards assessment methods used in King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. Pak J Med Sci 31(4): 757-762. International Pharmaceutical Federation (2012) FIP Education Initiatives: Pharmacy Education Taskforce A Global Competency Framework -Version 1. Available via https://www.fip.org/files/fip/PharmacyEducation/Gb CF_v1.pdf (Accessed 15 September 2019).
Hospital clinical pharmacy services in Vietnam
  • H T Trinh
  • Htl Nguyen
  • Vtt Pham
  • H L Ba
  • Ptx Dong
  • Ttb Cao
  • Hth Nguyen
  • J A Brien
Trinh HT, Nguyen HTL, Pham VTT, Ba HL, Dong PTX, Cao TTB, Nguyen HTH, Brien JA (2018) Hospital clinical pharmacy services in Vietnam. Int J Clin Pharm 40(5): 1144-1153.
Basic competency standards for Vietnamese pharmacists
  • Vietnam Minister
  • Health
Vietnam Minister of Health (2019) Basic competency standards for Vietnamese pharmacists, 2019. [ONLINE] Available via https://luatvietnam.vn/y-te/quyet-dinh-4815-qd-byt-2019-tai-lieu-chuan-nang-luc-co-ban-cuaduoc-sy-viet-nam-177597-d1.html (Accessed 15 September 2019)