The relevance of the International Pharmaceutical Federation Global Competency Framework in developing a country-level competency framework for pharmacists: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: In the ever-changing roles of pharmacists, the evidence shows that the use of competency frameworks could aid in achieving professional performance development and ensuring a consistent quality pharmacy education. However, there is no national competency framework for pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. This study, therefore, uses an evidence-based method to identify the competencies required to support and facilitate the pharmacists' training and career development. OBJECTIVE: To assess pharmacists' perception of the relevance of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Global Competency Framework (GbCF v1) to their own practice. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey of pharmacists in different practice settings was conducted between August and November 2020, in Saudi Arabia. The survey was adopted from the GbCF v1. A combination of purposive and snowball sampling was used. The relevance to the GbCF v1 was assessed using a four-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: A total of 522 pharmacists participated in the survey. The study showed broad agreement on relevance to practice for 84% of behaviours included in the GbCF v1. The ‘pharmaceutical public health’ cluster scored the highest percentage of relevant responses (91.42%), followed by the ‘professional/personal’ cluster (87.08%), whereas the ‘organisation and management’ cluster scored the highest percentage of ‘not-relevant’ responses (18.40%). The observed non-relevancy was associated with gender, nationality and area of pharmacy practice (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The competencies and behaviours included in the GbCF v1 are relevant to pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. However, some behaviours of the GbCF v1 require modification to be appropriate for the local needs of the Saudi pharmacy practice. The findings from this exercise will be used as a base to develop a foundation-level competency framework to inform initial pharmacy education development and address knowledge gaps and learning needs required to attain and maintain pharmacists' competence to practise.