Mon 24 July 2023
'Unprecedented' focus on recognition and specialty practice as SHPA releases Transformation 2024
Through unprecedented investment in practitioner recognition, specialty pharmacy and digital infrastructure, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) is embarking on a transformative growth agenda over the next twelve months to expand the positive impact of pharmacy expertise across care settings.
SHPA President Tom Simpson released Transformation 2024 today via a dedicated microsite, saying ‘This agenda takes our venerable organisation into a new era, outlining SHPA’s new initiatives including expanding education, developing new digital platforms, driving deprescribing awareness and championing and credentialling partnered pharmacist prescribing.
'New practice recognition pathways are a centrepiece of Transformation 2024, designed to help practitioners of all levels navigate an increasingly mobile professional landscape.
‘This national recognition is important as the walls between care settings fall and more pharmacy care is delivered through specialty practice in interdisciplinary teams, and younger pharmacists seek broader opportunities.
‘SHPA’s recognition program will enable the achievements of Australian pharmacists to be clearly and concisely understood by their employers and peers, by healthcare colleagues and, most importantly, by the patients in their care.
‘Pathways for pharmacy technicians will also be available, recognising the increasing autonomy and impact of these key roles, alongside fast-track pharmacist pathways that follow evidence-based Residency frameworks.
‘I am passionate and optimistic about our profession, and it is an honour to play my part in shaping SHPA and how it meets the needs of its members, of our hospitals and pharmacy workplaces, and our patients. Transformation 2024 is the next step in SHPA’s story, and a step forward for pharmacy practice in Australia.’
Vice President Dr Kate O’Hara says SHPA’s identity is evolving to meet the moment.
‘To move between increasingly collaborative care settings, specialty practitioners need a strong champion and flexible, career-long support as they accumulate experience, expertise, and evidence of their impact.
‘Through Transformation 2024 we are proud to accelerate our significant investment into digital infrastructure and capability to ensure pharmacists and technicians – SHPA's members and users – are better connected and supported through intuitive technology.
'As a leading voice driving conversations around polypharmacy in residential aged care, SHPA will push the recognition of deprescribing as a core tenet of medicines safety.
‘And with practice development pathways applicable to all settings – community and residential care, primary and transitions of care, and hospital care – and to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, we are evolving to meet the needs of the entire sector, in service to all communities.’
Mr Simpson says Australian pharmacy has always evolved in step with advancing innovation in medicines, but the pace is quickening.
‘Through the challenges of COVID-19, pharmacy innovations have accelerated; barriers to virtual care continue to fall, and Australians’ collective digital literacy has increased; new models of team-based care have moved specialty pharmacy into the mainstream.
‘Our task now is to ensure our future workforce is fit for the task of more complex, interconnected care.
‘Hospital-based or hospital-informed training creates practitioners whose native habitat is multidisciplinary, collaborative care, surrounded by specialists and generalists from all healthcare professions.
‘SHPA embraces the entire profession across its membership, a truly representative peak body of choice for pharmacy practice in Australia.’
Further information on SHPA’s new practice recognition program will be announced at 81st FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brisbane in September.