What kind of pharmacist are you? An interesting read from the pharmacy world!

What kind of pharmacist are you? An interesting read from the pharmacy world!

We need a new method of appraisal for pharmacists that doesn’t just focus on business measures but also takes into account the impact practitioners have, improves job satisfaction and builds motivation, says Liam Stapleton.

Are you a good pharmacist? It is an unusual question and probably one that you haven’t been asked before. Your answer might be “of course I am”, or a more cautious “I think I am”. Perhaps a more realistic answer is “I don’t really know”.

When I worked in community pharmacy, my performance as a pharmacist was never appraised. Appraisals were about business performance – the growth in prescription numbers, say, or medicines sales, delivering services or managing costs.

No one ever asked about the difference I made to patients’ lives or how I interacted with them. No one asked about my relationships with local doctors. When I was a senior manager I didn’t ask anyone either.

Business bias

Metrics for assessing pharmacists’ performance have always tended to be focused on business measures but, as we move into a new era in which the role of the pharmacist is more clinical, is this sufficient? Do we need to define what a ‘good’ pharmacist is? And should this be done in terms of competencies or outcomes?

Can a pharmacist who is liked by their patients be described as good, or do we need to start to measure the impact we have on the people or communities we serve?