Background: Thai pharmacy education has moved to an all Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programme. However,\nthere has been no previous research about the perceptions regarding the suitability of PharmD graduates\nemployed in hospital settings, which is the major pharmacy workforce in Thailand.\nMethods: A cross-sectional survey questionnaire was distributed to 180 hospital pharmacists at the 2013\nAssociation of Hospital Pharmacy (Thailand) conference. This study aimed to explore Thai hospital pharmacists�\nperceptions concerning the suitability of the PharmD graduates employed in hospital settings and the competency\ndifferences between the Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) and PharmD graduates. Descriptive statistics were used to\npresent the participants� demographics and their perceptions. An inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse\nthe open-ended written answers.\nResults: Ninety-eight valid responses were included in the data analysis (response rate of 55.6 %). The majority of\nthe respondents (76.5 %) felt that the PharmD graduates were suited for the hospital setting and addressed its\nneed for more professionals working in pharmaceutical care and with multi-disciplinary teams. Approximately 55 %\nof respondents agreed that there were competency differences between the BPharm and PharmD graduates. Major\nthemes emerged in response to the open-ended written answers showing that PharmD graduates had high\ncompetency in patient care services and readiness to work, particularly in large hospitals, due to their training to\nwork in specialised areas (e.g., special clinics, ward rounds). However, PharmD graduates require more training in\nhealth promotion and humanistic skills and need the system to promote the role of PharmD in pharmaceutical\ncare.\nConclusions: PharmD graduates were suited for hospital settings. However, there were concerns regarding the\nsuitability of the PharmD graduates for the community hospital and primary care hospital settings because of their\ninsufficient training in health promotion and disease prevention. Half of the respondents perceived PharmD\ngraduates as having higher competencies in clinical activities and being more prepared to work than BPharm\ngraduates. However, the other half of the respondents perceived the competency of both pharmacy qualifications\nas being similar, as PharmD graduates provide non-clinical activities similar to BPharm graduates due to the high\nworkload in dispensing services and the shortage of hospital pharmacists, which prevent PharmD graduates from\nproviding direct pharmaceutical care services.
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