Job and Career Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical Sector

The pharmaceutical field offers a wealth of job and career opportunities for talented young graduates with a sound background in life sciences and various other academic disciplines. Because these employment options are often insufficiently known to young academics, the aim of this chapter is to give them a better idea about the many job opportunities and presents the entire drug life cycle. The first part of the chapter includes a general description of the drug life cycle and what is understood by ‘the pharmaceutical sector’. The core of the chapter gives an overview of job opportunities that either are specific to the different parts of the drug life cycle or are important as support functions over the entire life cycle. It also includes a section on career perspectives and training opportunities. The last part of the chapter focuses on important employability elements, as well as some practical do’s and don’ts for effective job application

Tuning research competences for Bologna three cycles in medicine:report of a MEDINE2 European consensus survey

Medical curricula, like healthcare systems and medical practice, have a strong cultural component and vary considerably between countries. Increasing mobility of medical graduates, and increasing pressure to ensure they are all fit for practice, have highlighted an urgent need to establish common ground in learning outcomes at all stages of training. A research-based approach, developed by the Tuning project, was used previously by the MEDINE Thematic Network to gain consensus on core learning outcomes/competences for primary medical degrees (www.tuning-medicine.com), but no consensus was reached for learning outcomes relating to research. As part of MEDINE2, a focussed Tuning project was undertaken to explore opinions on more detailed core learning outcomes in research for all three Bologna cycles (Bachelor, Master, and Doctor). Responses from 417 stakeholders, representing 29 European and 13 non-European countries, revealed a relatively high degree of consensus. The findings strongly suggest that these stakeholders think that learning outcomes related both to ‘using research’ and ‘doing research’ should be core components of medical curricula in Europe. The challenge now, however, is to promote further local and international discussion on these issues, and to find ways of achieving these competences within the context of already crowded medical curricula

A Study on How Industrial Pharmacists Rank Competences for Pharmacy Practice: A Case for Industrial Pharmacy Specialization

This paper looks at the way in which industrial pharmacists rank the fundamental competences for pharmacy practice. European industrial pharmacists (n = 135) ranked 68 competences for practice, arranged into 13 clusters of two types (personal and patient care). Results show that, compared to community pharmacists (n = 258), industrial pharmacists rank competences centering on research, development and production of drugs higher, and those centering on patient care lower. Competences centering on values, communication skills, etc. were ranked similarly by the two groups of pharmacists. These results are discussed in the light of the existence or not of an “industrial pharmacy” specialization

The Second Round of the PHAR-QA Survey of Competences for Pharmacy Practice

This paper presents the results of the second European Delphi round on the ranking of competences for pharmacy practice and compares these data to those of the first round already published. A comparison of the numbers of respondents, distribution by age group, country of residence, etc., shows that whilst the student population of respondents changed from Round 1 to 2, the populations of the professional groups (community, hospital and industrial pharmacists, pharmacists in other occupations and academics) were more stable. Results are given for the consensus of ranking and the scores of ranking of 50 competences for pharmacy practice. This two-stage, large-scale Delphi process harmonized and validated the Quality Assurance in European Pharmacy Education and Training (PHAR-QA) framework and ensured the adoption by the pharmacy profession of a framework proposed by the academic pharmacy community. The process of evaluation and validation of ranking of competences by the pharmacy profession is now complete, and the PHAR-QA consortium will now put forward a definitive PHAR-QA framework of competences for pharmacy practice.Peer reviewe

A European competence framework for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology

Project Report: The PHAR-IN ("Competences for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology") looked at whether there is a difference in how industrial employees and academics rank competences for practice in the biotechnological industry. A small expert panel consisting of the authors of this paper produced a biotechnology competence framework by drawing up an initial list of competences then ranking them in importance using a three-stage Delphi process. The framework was next evaluated and validated by a large expert panel of academics (n = 37) and industrial employees (n = 154). Results show that priorities for industrial employees and academics were similar. The competences for biotechnology practice that received the highest scores were mainly in: . "Research and Development", . "Upstream" and "Downstream" Processing', " . "Product development and formulation", " . "Aseptic processing", ."Analytical methodology", . "Product stability", and . "Regulation". The main area of disagreement was in the category "Ethics and drug safety" where academics ranked competences higher than did industrial employees

The PHAR-QA Project: Competency Framework for Pharmacy Practice—First Steps, the Results of the European Network Delphi Round 1

PHAR-QA, funded by the European Commission, is producing a framework of competences for pharmacy practice. The framework is in line with the EU directive on sectoral professions and takes into account the diversity of the pharmacy profession and the on-going changes in healthcare systems (with an increasingly important role for pharmacists), and in the pharmaceutical industry. PHAR-QA is asking academia, students and practicing pharmacists to rank competences required for practice. The results show that competences in the areas of “drug interactions”, “need for drug treatment” and “provision of information and service” were ranked highest whereas those in the areas of “ability to design and conduct research” and “development and production of medicines” were ranked lower. For the latter two categories, industrial pharmacists ranked them higher than did the other five groups.Peer reviewe

Does the Subject Content of the Pharmacy Degree Course Influence the Community Pharmacist’s Views on Competencies for Practice?

Do community pharmacists coming from different educational backgrounds rank the importance of competences for practice differently—or is the way in which they see their profession more influenced by practice than university education? A survey was carried out on 68 competences for pharmacy practice in seven countries with different pharmacy education systems in terms of the relative importance of the subject areas chemical and medicinal sciences. Community pharmacists were asked to rank the competences in terms of relative importance for practice; competences were divided into personal and patient-care competences. The ranking was very similar in the seven countries suggesting that evaluation of competences for practice is based more on professional experience than on prior university education. There were some differences for instance in research-related competences and these may be influenced, by education.Peer reviewe

How Do European Pharmacy Students Rank Competences for Practice?

European students (n = 370), academics (n = 241) and community pharmacists (n = 258) ranked 13 clusters of 68 personal and patient care competences for pharmacy practice. The results show that ranking profiles for all three groups as a rule were similar. This was especially true of the comparison between students and community pharmacists concerning patient care competences suggesting that students have a good idea of their future profession. A comparison of first and fifth (final) year students shows more awareness of patient care competences in the final year students. Differences do exist, however, between students and community pharmacists. Students—like academics—ranked competences concerned with industrial pharmacy and the quality aspects of preparing drugs, as well as scientific fundamentals of pharmacy practice, well above the rankings of community pharmacists. There were no substantial differences amongst rankings of students from different countries although some countries have more “medicinal” courses than others. This is to our knowledge the first paper to look at how, within a healthcare sectoral profession such as pharmacy, the views on the relative importance of different competences for practice of those educating the future professionals and their students, are compared to the views of working professionals.Peer reviewe

What is a Pharmacist: Opinions of Pharmacy Department Academics and Community Pharmacists on Competences Required for Pharmacy Practice

This paper looks at the opinions of 241 European academics (who provide pharmacy education), and of 258 European community pharmacists (who apply it), on competences for pharmacy practice. A proposal for competences was generated by a panel of experts using Delphi methodology. Once finalized, the proposal was then submitted to a large, European-wide community of academics and practicing pharmacists in an additional Delphi round. Academics and community pharmacy practitioners recognized the importance of the notion of patient care competences, underlining the nature of the pharmacist as a specialist of medicines. The survey revealed certain discrepancies. Academics placed substantial emphasis on research, pharmaceutical technology, regulatory aspects of quality, etc., but these were ranked much lower by community pharmacists who concentrated more on patient care competences. In a sub-analysis of the data, we evaluated how perceptions may have changed since the 1980s and the introduction of the notions of competence and pharmaceutical care. This was done by splitting both groups into respondents 40 years old. Results for the subgroups were essentially statistically the same but with some different qualitative tendencies. The results are discussed in the light of the different conceptions of the professional identity of the pharmacist.Peer reviewe

Hospital and Community Pharmacists’ Perceptions of Which Competences Are Important for Their Practice

The objective of the PHAR-QA (Quality assurance in European pharmacy education and training) project was to investigate how competence-based learning could be applied to a healthcare, sectoral profession such as pharmacy. This is the first study on evaluation of competences from the pharmacists’ perspective using an improved Delphi method with a large number of respondents from all over Europe. This paper looks at the way in which hospital pharmacists rank the fundamental competences for pharmacy practice. European hospital pharmacists (n = 152) ranked 68 competences for pharmacy practice of two types (personal and patient care), arranged into 13 clusters. Results were compared to those obtained from community pharmacists (n = 258). Generally, hospital and community pharmacists rank competences in a similar way. Nevertheless, differences can be detected. The higher focus of hospital pharmacists on knowledge of the different areas of science as well as on laboratory tests reflects the idea of a hospital pharmacy specialisation. The difference is also visible in the field of drug production. This is a necessary competence in hospitals with requests for drugs for rare diseases, as well as paediatric and oncologic drugs. Hospital pharmacists give entrepreneurship a lower score, but cost-effectiveness a higher one than community pharmacists. This reflects the reality of pharmacy practice where community pharmacists have to act as entrepreneurs, and hospital pharmacists are managers staying within drug budgets. The results are discussed in the light of a “hospital pharmacy” specialisation.Peer reviewe