Nadia Attura
Pharmacists with at least two years of experience will soon be able to apply to join the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Faculty, RPS President Ash Soni confirmed in the opening address of the RPS Annual Conference, held in Birmingham, on 7 September 2014.
Since its June 2013 launch, the professional recognition programme’s assessment process has only been open to members with a minimum of ten years’ experience under a “recognition of prior experience” route to accreditation.
The expansion of the scheme will allow pharmacists who have between two and ten years of experience to submit their portfolios for assessment to join the Faculty. These members already have access to the full suite of Faculty resources and portfolio-building support.
Catherine Duggan, RPS director of professional development and support, told The Pharmaceutical Journal that the board is set to ratify the model that would underpin the expanded assessment process, with assessment open to eligible members in 2015.
“Now is the time to start preparing for that journey,” Soni challenged attendees. “Go and have a look at the competencies [in the Advanced Pharmacy Framework]. Start building your portfolio and see how quickly you can achieve Faculty accreditation.”
Soni said he is working on his own Faculty submission, and advised members to “go and find someone who has completed their Faculty journey and see how it has helped them”.
“In the future [the RPS] will work with the General Pharmaceutical Council so that Faculty accreditation can be a route to support continuing fitness to practice,” Soni told the conference.
