A Global Survey on Pharmacy Workforce

Abstract

Little work has been carried out to clarify the global status of advanced and/or specialized pharmacy practice scopes and the models under which they operate, considering the increasingly complex treatment and challenging health challenges shaping pharmacy. The present global status of initiatives relating to the advancement of pharmacy practice is defined in this report. Between January and May 2015, a global survey was conducted to collect country-level data from the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) member organization and national contacts from regulatory, technical and government agencies or universities, sending data requests to 109 countries. Data collected were triangulated (comparing different single-country sources, for example), cleaned and analyzed using descriptive and comparative statistics. Full data sets were collected from 48 countries and territories. The results show different structures of advanced pharmacy practice and specialization that are often related to the level of income. The research found that there are differences in terms and meanings, specialization and advanced practice systems, structures of professional recognition, and benefits across countries.