PhD defence: Training and Assessment in Workplace-based Community Pharmacy: Creating Foundations and Nurturing Progress

This PhD research focuses on the development, validation, and revision of the postgraduate workplace-based community pharmacy education program in the Netherlands, aiming to develop pharmacists into competent community pharmacists. The first main research question addresses how such a program can be developed, validated, and revised using design approaches from medical education and context-specific research findings. The second main research question asks how trainees and supervisors perceive learning and assessment in the workplace. Specific questions explore the program's function using Moos’ theory of human environments and self-determination theory to study the quality of the educational environment, and Kane’s framework for validating measures of performance to study the utility and validity of assessments.

The key finding is that design approaches from medical education can successfully be used to develop and revise the curriculum. The competency framework based on CanMEDS is adaptable to changes in the community pharmacy profession. Intermediate progress evaluations in training pharmacies are useful for structuring learning and directing feedback, while summative evaluations by supervisors in training pharmacies are unreliable for decision-making. Establishing a clinical competency committee can improve the distinction between formative feedback and summative decision-making.

In the workplace, suboptimal quality of educational environments can frustrate trainees' basic psychological needs. Supervisors experience role conflicts, preferring a role in competency development over an assessment role. Increased workplace support may improve workplace-based education and the relationships of pharmacies with the educational institute.

The thesis concludes that the curriculum and workplace are interconnected, and curricular changes should align with the basic psychological needs of both trainees and supervisors. This research contributes to the foundational development and ongoing progress of training and assessment in workplace-based community pharmacy in the Netherlands.