title: Pharmacist provision of primary health care: a modified Delphi validation of pharmacists' competencies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pharmacists have expanded their roles and responsibilities as a result of primary health care reform. There is currently no consensus on the core competencies for pharmacists working in these evolving practices. The aim of this study was to develop and validate competencies for pharmacists' effective performance in these roles, and in so doing, document the perceived contribution of pharmacists providing collaborative primary health care services.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a modified Delphi process including assessing perception of the frequency and criticality of performing tasks, we validated competencies important to primary health care pharmacists practising across Canada.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten key informants contributed to competency drafting; thirty-three expert pharmacists replied to a second round survey. The final primary health care pharmacist competencies consisted of 34 elements and 153 sub-elements organized in seven CanMeds-based domains. Highest importance rankings were allocated to the domains of care provider and professional, followed by communicator and collaborator, with the lower importance rankings relatively equally distributed across the manager, advocate and scholar domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Expert pharmacists working in primary health care estimated their most important responsibilities to be related to direct patient care. Competencies that underlie and are required for successful fulfillment of these patient care responsibilities, such as those related to communication, collaboration and professionalism were also highly ranked. These ranked competencies can be used to help pharmacists understand their potential roles in these evolving practices, to help other health care professionals learn about pharmacists' contributions to primary health care, to establish standards and performance indicators, and to prioritize supports and education to maximize effectiveness in this role.
authors.affiliation: Summerville Family Health Team, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kennie-Kaulbach
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gubbels
authors.forename: Tewodros
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eguale
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dolovich
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jorgenson
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Waite
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Winslade
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services; D032921:Consensus; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D003697:Delphi Technique; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D024382:Professional Role; D011594:Psychometrics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000078329:Workforce