Pharmacy education and workforce
Pharmacy education and workforce is a major research theme in the division. Education begins at undergraduate level and continues through a pharmacist’s entire professional career
Pharmacy education and workforce research themes and projects:
FIPEd Education Initiative
Recognising the need to ensure a sustainable pharmaceutical workforce relevant to local needs and build the local capacity of pharmacy higher education institutions, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) launched the Pharmacy Education Taskforce with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in March 2008, at the first Global Forum for Human Resources for Health in Kampala, after a series of global consultations on pharmacy education.
The Taskforce was a collection of stakeholders representing various global, regional and country networks with the shared goal of coordinating and catalysing actions to develop pharmacy education.
Methods
The FIP Education Initiative is being achieved through:
- providing a global platform for exchange, mentoring and learning for leaders and academics, focusing on the development of leadership skills and academic management and pedagogic skills
- building, advocating for and disseminating evidence-based guidance
- consensus-based standards, tools and resources for educational development for both organisations and practitioners.
Building on the success of the action plan (2008-2010) implemented by the FIP-WHO-UNESCO Pharmacy Education Taskforce the domains of activity will continue to move forward and to grow sustainably. We have recently launched the FIP Vision and Workforce development goals
Claire Anderson was involved in setting up the taskforce and is now FIPEd development team lead for the academic workforce and capacity building domain and is carrying out work in capacity evaluation, workforce issues and needs assessment. Claire chaired the FIP working group on the pharmacy workforce and contributed to the recent FIP Global Pharmacy Workforce Report. She was also on the planning committee for the FIPEd global pharmacy education conference in November 2016 Claire Anderson was also involved in the production of the FIPEd Global Education report 2013 (PDF):
Internationalised Higher Education
Researching and developing the potential of the internationalised higher educational environment for all students is one of our fields of research.
Stephanie Bridges is researching and developing applications of the Intercultural Capabilities List to evaluate pedagogical and institutional processes that can enhance or constrain student capability and agency. Her intercultural capability set has been developed to frame thinking about the potential of higher education to contribute to public good through promotion of a more cosmopolitan-aware outlook in students. She is currently using this to enact pedagogical change within the School. She is also involved in a national cross-disciplinary project studying aspects of the undergraduate student journey from a capability perspective.