Autonomy and relevance in annual recertification
Keywords:
New Zealand College of Pharmacists, Wellington, New ZealandAbstract
Ongoing competence assessment is becoming mandatory for health professionals in New Zealand. The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand has introduced a system, that measures the application of learning to practice. The advantages of the system are that it rises above the tokenism of completion of certain numbers of hours of unspecified education and takes a firm step towards relevant learning. The challenges arise from implementation of the system, particularly from pharmacists who may resent the imposition of mandatory reaccreditation and consider this a negation of their professional autonomy. It could be argued that there is still considerable autonomy remaining in their choice of learning activities and judgment of outcome credits, in an era when transparency of professional competence has become a matter of public concern.
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