MORE than 60 hospital pharmacy leaders from around Australia gathered in Melbourne over the past few days to share their year's experiences and learnings at the 2017 SHPA Residency Symposium, an annual highlight of Australia's first hospital pharmacy residency program.
Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia chief executive Kristin Michaels said the symposium marked a turning point for the new SHPA Residency Program, which has accredited 30 sites around the country to provide education and support to over 100 pharmacy residents in its first 12 months.
"Following the success of our inaugural event in 2016, this year we've turned our attention to providing program leaders, preceptors, clinical educators and pharmacy directors with the hands-on support and guidance they need to deliver quality residency programs," Michaels said.
"Qualitative assessment tells us the Residency Program is providing twin benefits: turbocharging the early careers of hospital pharmacists in their formative years, while rapidly deepening the skill set and capacity of hospital pharmacy departments."
Keynote speaker Beth Ward, Foundation Program manager from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (UK) (pictured), said she was delighted Australian hospitals had embraced SHPA's Residency Program, a proven workforce development framework overseas.
"There's a great buzz here today -- the energy reflects what is an exciting time in hospital pharmacy; not only do residency programs give early-career pharmacists support to consolidate their studies, they assure hospitals that staff are providing patients with the best possible care in a safe environment.
"In the UK we've published evidence that pharmacists who structure their career path via programs utilising developmental frameworks, advance faster and pharmacy services offering these programs are more enticing to enthusiastic and dedicated newcomers," Ward said.
The next round of SHPA Residency Program site accreditation, for 2018, will open in mid-Sep 2017.
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