The new competence standards, and pharmacist prescriber standards were developed with strong input and engagement from the profession.

“The profession can feel proud to have ownership of these standards, which promote and uphold high quality pharmacist practice,” says Pharmacy Council CE Michael Pead.

Published and sent to the profession in June last year, the new standards set the required competencies, knowledge, and skills to strengthen the profession’s safe practice and the public’s trust in pharmacists.

A major change in the new competence standards is the inclusion of “Domain 1: Te Tiriti o Waitangi” that describes behaviours to apply Te Tiriti to pharmacy practice, and Māori perspectives of hauora (health and wellbeing).

“In recent years we have developed a stronger understanding of Te Tiriti obligations,” says Michael. “We realised that we needed to refresh the standards for competence, prescribing and accreditation to set clear expectations for culturally safe as well as clinically safe pharmacy practice.”

“We believe the new standards provide greater clarity and guidance, and encourage every pharmacist to read and familiarise themselves with the new standards. Pharmacists can also reach out to their professional associations for support to meet the standards.”

The new accreditation standards for pharmacy programmes set a high-quality bar for pharmacy education providers. The accreditation standards are aligned to the competence standards and were developed following a robust consultation process. This process engaged education providers, pharmacy academics, accreditation experts, pharmacists, and professional associations to seek their insights and feedback to develop the standards.