The Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) welcomes the release of the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review Final Report. Led by Prof Mark Cormack, the independent review identifies a range of issues that impact the ability of all primary care health professionals to work to their full scope of practice. The combined recommendations in the report are intended to remove the major barriers that impede health professionals from practising to their full scope, and that prevent multidisciplinary teams from providing the best collaborative care for consumers.
While the Review found that ‘virtually all health professions in the primary care sector face some restrictions or barriers to working at full scope of practice that are unrelated to their education (skills and knowledge) and competence’, there are several recommendations that relate to workforce development and education that sit within APC’s remit in relation to pharmacists.
APC CEO Bronwyn Clark endorses the review’s focus on dismantling the barriers that impede pharmacists and other healthcare professions from practising at the top of their scope of practice. “Pharmacists are ready and willing to take on more expanded roles, and our work as the accreditation authority for pharmacy education is preparing them to be safe and competent for these roles. This includes our recent development of accreditation standards for pharmacist prescriber education programs that we now use in our accreditation of programs”, she said.
“Additionally, our commitment to strengthening interprofessional education and collaborative practice is assisting all regulated health practitioners to learn from, with, and about each other for the benefit of all patients aligns with recommendations from the report. Our leadership in this space is evidenced by our upcoming IPE Colloquium 2025 event, “Breaking Boundaries: Education as an Enabler of Trust in Healthcare,” which will spotlight the role of interprofessional education (IPE) and its importance in enabling and fostering trust across healthcare professions and healthcare education to support collaborative practice and person-centred care.”
The full Scope of Practice report is available here. Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review Final Report.
APC response to Cormack Report
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