Pharmacy practice advance

PHARMACY Development Australia has launched a new online portal designed to take pharmacists wanting to progress to higher levels of advanced practice.

The portal, titled Advancing Practice, is overseen by the Advancing Practice Advisory Board and credentials pharmacists in two stages, Advancing Practice and Advanced Practice Pharmacist.

The new pathway is designed to objectively measure “practitioners’ influence on pharmacy practice and impact on medicines management and patient care,” the site explains.

The first applications to submit pharmacists’ portfolios have been lodged, with first round applications closing Thu 15 Mar.

Chair of the Advancing Practice Advisory Board, Associate Professor Ian Coombes, said “It is crucial that pharmacists across all care settings are supported to step up and meet the demands of an ageing population and more complex medicines management and thrive at the full scope of their practice.

“The need to install a rigorous framework through which to build a more highly skilled, flexible and adaptable pharmacy workforce has long been in focus for some of Australia’s leading practitioners,” Coombes elaborated.

“Over the last decade a number of collaborative bodies have built upon a growing body of research and drawn from international example to refine an Advanced Practice framework suitable for the Australian landscape.”

International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) ceo and Advancing Practice Advisory Board member Dr Catherine Duggan said the return of a centralised credentialing process put Australia in-step with global pharmacy workforce development.

See advancingpractice.com.au.