Time to entrust? Rethinking pharmacy intern assessment in South Africa

Abstract

Background: An essential component of the pharmacist internship is to establish whether the intern is competent to practise independently. In South Africa, this decision is based on multiple assessments: examination, portfolio of evidence, and progress reports. Globally, there has been development and adoption of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) to assess both pharmacy students and interns in the workplace. This letter reviews assessments for pharmacy interns in South Africa, discusses the use of EPAs in pharmacy education, and argues for their integration as a means to enhance the structure, consistency, and future-readiness of the existing framework.

Methods: This letter does not employ a specific methodological approach. It reviewed the current assessment framework used by the South African Pharmacy Council to evaluate pharmacist interns and compared these to EPAs used in pharmacy education.

Findings: The current assessment framework, based on competency principles, lacks a structured and prospective mechanism to determine the interns’ readiness for independent practice. Literature has shown that EPAs have been used successfully internationally to longitudinally evaluate the competency of pharmacy students and interns to complete profession-based activities in the workplace. EPAs have demonstrated applicability in evaluating clinical reasoning and decision-making through the assigning of a level of entrustment for specific clinical tasks.

Conclusion: The structured pharmacy internship model in South Africa provides a strong foundation for piloting EPAs. Given the dearth of local information, this letter calls for the development and piloting of EPAs to assess pharmacy workplace competencies.