The Pharmacy Board of Australia engaged us to develop accreditation standards for pharmacist prescriber training programs.
Throughout 2023, we conducted public consultation with a wide range of stakeholders to inform the development of the new standards. The consultation has concluded, and the standards have been sent to Pharmacy Board of Australia signalling completion of the project.
On this page:
The Pharmacy Board of Australia has undertaken extensive work to investigate the capacity for competent and safe prescribing by pharmacists. They issued a statement on this work in 2019.
The development of accreditation standards have been informed by the NPS Prescribing Competencies Framework (2021) which describes the expectations for all health professional prescribers.
The standards for training programs for pharmacist prescribers will equip pharmacists with the knowledge, skills and attributes to be competent and safe prescribers within their scope of practice as authorised under relevant legislation.
Our approach to developing accreditation standards is always robust, transparent, and consultative. This work followed our usual processes for developing accreditation standards.
Under the guidance of Governance and Stakeholder Reference Groups, we developed a set of Accreditation Standards including a Performance Outcomes Framework and an Evidence Guide for education providers.
We also established an accreditation system to accredit education programs similar to how we accredit pharmacy degree programs or intern training programs.
A governance group, chaired by Associate Professor Sue Kirsa oversaw the work. A stakeholder reference group, chaired by Professor Lisa Nissen, informed and advised on development of the standards.
We engaged a subject matter expert pharmacist. They undertook a literature review, environmental scan and competency mapping of pharmacist prescribing internationally and in Australia.
We consulted with key stakeholders to help us develop:
Our stakeholders included:
We gathered feedback from our stakeholders through methods including:
This review summarises literature relevant to the development of accreditation standards for education and training programs for pharmacist prescribers in Australia. It includes a review of international and national literature of pharmacist prescribing, and accreditation standards of other prescribing health professions.
9 March 2023 to 10 April 2023
We received feedback from more than 179 people during the first consultation period, which included input from 53 forum attendees, 103 survey responses, 9 written submissions, and 14 one-on-one interviews.
7 September 2023 to 28 September 2023
We received feedback from 90 stakeholders during the second consultation period, which included input from 67 forum attendees, 18 survey responses, and 5 written submissions.
A/Prof Sue Kirsa, APC Chair |
Prof Lisa Nissen, Stakeholder Reference Group Chair |
Emeritus Prof Nicholas Glasgow, APC Board Member (Medical practitioner) |
Prof Rhonda Clifford, APC Board Member |
A/Prof Kirstie Galbraith, APC Board Member |
Prof Nick Shaw, APC Accreditation Commitee Chair |
Mr Brett Simmonds, Pharmacy Board of Australia Chair |
Ms Bronwyn Clark, APC Chief Executive Officer |
Prof Lisa Nissen |
Stakeholder Reference Group Chair HERA Program Director Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, University of Queensland |
Dr Amy Page |
Pharmacy Board of Australia practitioner member |
Dr Sue Martin |
Pharmacy Board of Australia community member |
Dr David Newby |
Council of Pharmacy Schools (CPS) |
A/Prof Andrew Hale |
Council of Pharmacy Schools (CPS) |
Ms Suzanna Nash |
Australasian College of Pharmacy (ACP) |
Mr Mike Stephens |
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (NACCHO) |
Ms Kerri Barwick |
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) |
Ms Zoe Girdis |
Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) |
Ms Kylee Hayward |
Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) |
Mr Flynn Swift |
National Association of Pharmacy Students Australia (NAPSA) |
Mr Gary West |
Pharmaceutical Defence Limited (PDL) |
Mr Peter Grimmer |
Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand (OCANZ) |
Ms Pauline McQuoid |
Medwise, New Zealand |
Prof Sharon Bentley |
Deputy Dean, Faculty of Health and Director, Centre for Vision & Eye Research Queensland University of Technology |
A/Prof Bhavini Patel |
Executive Director Medicines Management, NT Health |
Ms Sok Leng Cam |
Practising pharmacist |
Ms Sara McCarthy |
Practising pharmacist |
Ms Bree Armstrong |
Practising pharmacist |
Mr Sean Mutchmor |
Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) representative |
Ms Patrice Harald |
First Nations person and consumer representative |
Ms Dani Brown |
Consumer representative |
Project team:
Ms Bronwyn Clark |
APC CEO |
Ms Glenys Wilkinson |
APC Deputy CEO |
Ms Claire Bekema |
APC Director Standards Development |
Ms Kate Spencer |
APC Director Accreditation and Assessments |
Ms Tiara Miller |
APC Administrative Support Officer |
Dr Lynda Cardiff |
SME consultant |
Dr Karen Bettenay |
SME consultant |
For any enquiries about the development of the accreditation standards, please contact us at standards@pharmacycouncil.org.au.