At the close of 2015 the 3 working groups of the common training framework (CTF) project held end of year meetings to review progress and determine next steps.

CTF Working Group 1, which takes as its task “the creation of a strong agreement on the knowledge, skills and competencies required to practice hospital pharmacy at an advanced level in Europe”, met in Brussels on Saturday 24th October. At its meeting, the Group conducted break out exercises to match hospital pharmacy competences set out in the 2011 Pharmine project with competences deemed to be required to meet the aspirations of the 44 European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy.

After this meeting the Working Group has determined the format and fields by which a future hospital pharmacy common training framework will be expressed. Work is now underway to populate the template in time for fuller review at the General Assembly of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) in June 2016.

CTF Working Group 2, which takes as its task “the compilation of supporting evidence of the value that can be created in forming a common training framework for hospital pharmacy”, met in Brussels on Saturday 21st November. At its meeting, the Group reviewed the results and challenges encountered so far in the conduct of a literature review pertaining to hospital pharmacy education, and agreed its strategy towards completion of the exercise. The Group also reviewed early results of a survey of hospital pharmacist attitudes and experiences in respect to labour mobility and suggested additional modes of research to be conducted in the subject area.

CTF Working Group 3 takes on a series of tasks including, but not limited to:

monitoring of developments relevant to the project at the EU and national levels;
conducting liaison with the European Commission and other professions developing common training framework approaches; and,
ensuring clear understanding of the project amongst the EAHP membership, wider hospital pharmacy profession and associated stakeholder community, as well as providing opportunities for their input.

At its November 2015 meeting the group further refined audiences that should be engaged with refining the framework following its first creation in draft, as well as examining the information needs of EAHP members and individual hospital pharmacists in practice in respect to the project. Communication toolkit needs were set out and an early strategy for communicating project milestones agreed.

Subsequent to this meeting the chairs of the 3 working groups (Andreia Bruno, Roberto Frontini, Joan Peppard) have met with the chair of the project Steering Committee (Ian Bates) to ensure alignment of activities and purpose and understanding of crossover. EAHP member associations will provided with a full brief of progress at the EAHP Members’ Meeting in Vienna on Tuesday 15th March.