Open AccessValidation of a hospital clinical pharmacy workforce calculator: A methodology for pharmacy?
Author(s) -
Bednall Ruth,
White Simon,
Mills Elizabeth,
Thomson Susan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.756
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1742-1241
pISSN - 1368-5031
DOI - 10.1111/ijcp.13932
Subject(s) - medicine , staffing , pharmacy , workload , workforce , clinical pharmacy , hospital pharmacy , health care , service delivery framework , nursing , service (business) , computer science , economy , economics , economic growth , operating system
Background The benefits of clinical pharmacy services are established within hospital practice but staff numbers required for service delivery are not well described and staffing levels vary. The need for a consistent, objective method of determining staffing levels was recognised at a UK University Hospital and a Clinical Pharmacy Workforce Calculator (CPWC) was developed. Objective To develop the Activity Standard (AS) for pharmaceutical care and establish the reliability of the CPWC across acute hospital settings in UK. Setting Acute hospital in‐patient clinical pharmacy services on medical and surgical wards. Method Using the World Health Organisation's Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) methodology, a two‐round Delphi study was undertaken. This developed the Activity Standard for pharmaceutical care and identified the staff‐time unavailable for clinical work. Consenting panel members then tested the CPWC, calculating the staff required for three scenarios to determine whether it could be reliably used by different operators. Results Thirty‐six participants consented to participate. Data were returned from 22 (61%) of whom 20 (56%) supplied analysable data. Consensus was achieved on the tasks required for pharmaceutical care delivery, the mean time each takes, how frequently they should be completed and the time unavailable for clinical work for each grade of staff. The CPWC calculates staffing requirements using these data. Eleven participants (55%) tested the CPWC and analysis of responses demonstrated that 30 of 33 (91%) calculations were accurately completed. Discussion This study defined the WISN Activity Standard for UK pharmaceutical care delivery to hospital inpatients and showed content validity for the CPWC in acute medical and surgical hospital settings. Different operators used the CPWC reliably and applied it to local sites. Conclusion The CPWC offers hospital pharmacy managers a useful tool to negotiate adequate staffing to deliver pharmaceutical care. Its development methodology could be applied widely in pharmacy practice.