28 July 2023
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) has launched a reimagined Professional Practice Standards today at its national flagship conference, PSA23.
The Professional Practice Standards have undergone a dramatic rebuild, making them more flexible to meet the diverse and contemporary needs of pharmacists practising in different specialty areas and scopes.
Under the new Professional Practice Standards, each clinical activity undertaken by pharmacists falls into one or more of 17 standards that are built off the medicine management cycle. Applying the PPS to practice will require pharmacists to look at the clinical activities they undertake, and the minimum practice standards that apply to those activities.
PSA National President Dr Fei Sim FPS launched the standards as part of her address at PSA23, the national flagship conference of PSA, in front of pharmacists, organisation leaders, and government officials.
“Over the past few years, we have seen significant expansion of the roles of pharmacists in Australia. As we work towards enabling pharmacists to practice to full scope, we must be mindful that the practice of pharmacists must be underpinned by a robust set of standards, to ensure the quality of the work that we do.
“At its core, the PPS are designed to define and articulate the minimum expected standards of professional behaviour in all aspects of pharmacy practice,” Dr Sim said.
“Pharmacists should be everywhere that medicines are, at all stages of the Medicine Management Cycle. We are giving pharmacists the flexibility to build their standards based on their individual practice.
“Every pharmacist in Australia will be united by these standards, which gives us all the building blocks for the foundations of professional pharmacy practice.
“The standards support us to be more flexible, to confidently expand our scope when our practice evolves. It offers clear and actionable direction, and importantly, it ensures the quality and standard, and increases the safety and effectiveness of the services we provide.”
Chair of the Project Advisory Group, Deanna Mill MPS, considers it to be one of the most important projects to set up the future of the profession.
“Through careful collaboration with stakeholders and consumers, we have developed a contemporary and evidence-based resource that provides improved clarity and usability for pharmacists across different roles, practice settings and career stages.
“I encourage all pharmacists to use the newly revised and updated Professional Practice Standards as a contemporary, evidence-based resource to guide their quality professional practice. By incorporating these standards into daily practice, we can all deliver safe, effective, and person-centred care for all Australians.”
PSA thanks members of the Project Advisory Group, the Standard Review Group, and the PSA Project Team, as well as the pharmacists, consumer representatives, regulators, educators, researchers, and government agencies who contributed to the development of the Professional Practice Standards.
The Professional Practice Standards are available here.
Media contact: Georgia Clarke M: 0480 099 798 E: [email protected]
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is the only national peak body that represents all of Australia’s 36,000 pharmacists across all practice settings. We want every Australian to have access to the best healthcare, and this must include optimising access to pharmacists’ knowledge and medicines expertise at the forefront of our healthcare system.