Upgrading pharmacy education to produce practice-ready pharmacists in Lebanon

Abstract

Background: Pharmacy is a steadily evolving profession that brings about changes in practice, where the pharmacist should fulfil novel expanded roles. As such, pharmacy education has to adapt to these local and international changes and follow scientific progress to graduate practice-ready pharmacists. The authors’ objective is to suggest a roadmap with practical solutions to scale-up pharmacy education in Lebanon and produce practice-ready pharmacists with specialised competencies while curbing the number of non-specialised graduates. Methods: To reach this objective, the Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon (OPL) has considered adopting the post-graduate training system to meet the needs of the country, based on scientific and social development. Results: The Board of the Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon agreed on the concept of the post-graduate training system for all pharmacists registering with the OPL. Consequently, the scientific committee at the OPL, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, developed post-graduate competencies and related activities in two parts (general core competencies and advanced specific competencies), to be applied by academia and pharmaceutical institutions. This project would raise the level of the profession, improve readiness to practice in different fields, and indirectly reduce the number of non- specialised pharmacy graduates. Conclusion: This paper suggests a road map with practical solutions, including core and specialised competencies acquired in post-graduate training and assessed through a licensure examination, to scale-up pharmacy education in Lebanon and produce practice-ready pharmacists. Further work is necessary to explore the applicability of these documents and confirm their validity in different fields of practice.