By Dr Camilla Wong
Deputy Group Director, Allied Health, SingHealth
Head, Allied Health, Sengkang Health
Deputy Director, Allied Health, SGH
 
I chose to be a pharmacist because I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare. I then trained as a critical care pharmacist because I wanted to serve patients and enjoyed the dynamic environment.
 
Back then, there were no competency frameworks to support my professional development.  As a pharmacist, there was only one way up the career track: take on more administrative tasks and relinquish clinical activities.
 
A few years into my career, I found a number of service gaps in Singapore hospital pharmacies when compared to leading international institutions. This, coupled with the knowledge of skills I needed, spurred me on to develop myself through self-reading, interacting with pharmacists at conferences, training overseas and learning from experts in various specialties.
 
In 2007, with a team of like-minded pharmacists, I started revising the career pathway for pharmacists in SGH. We looked at the various career pathways from around the globe and eventually decided on one that would comprise of three tracks: professional (administrative), clinical (including a specialist sub-track) and research.
 
At the same time, we mapped three competency frameworks (Entry Level, General Level and Advanced Level Competency Frameworks) into the career pathway. The framework comprises a list of skills and knowledge that individuals are required to have at every level of their career.
 
Together, they are powerful tools in career development, appraisal and manpower planning. They also give our pharmacists a more structured and formalised career progression – they can choose a path that best suit their interests, and know what qualifications are needed to grow in their chosen track.
 
During periodic assessments, a competency framework allows staff and supervisors to identify competency gaps at a glance and plan for further training.
 
For the institution, the framework provides management and human resources a clear gauge of manpower and development needs. This is a big improvement from the past when there was no structured way of assessing staff competency, accomplishments and training needs, apart from the annual appraisal.
 
At the beginning, I was very fortunate to receive help from UK’s Competency Development & Evaluation Group (CoDEG) who shared with us their UK Pharmacy Competency Framework.
 
Many junior and senior level pharmacists have benefitted from the revised career pathway and competency frameworks which helped shape their professional development. Our Pharmacy career pathway has since been nationalised and used by all public healthcare institutions in Singapore since 2009. A national advanced level competency framework has been piloted and will be rolled out by 2015.
 
The career pathways and competency frameworks are now being developed by other allied health professionals.
 
It is clear that career pathways matter. Since they were mapped out, we have been able to train, develop and motivate pharmacists better, and also attract more career seekers.

Those interested may consider adapting the pharmacy framework for your use. My advice is always to learn from others and adapt some of the more generic competency standards in available frameworks that are relevant to you and your needs, rather than to reinvent the wheel.