Pharmacy Board and APC make joint announcement

12 Feb 2018

This announcement is an important update regarding the assessment of pharmacy interns against the revised competency standards.

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) and the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) have jointly announced today how the revised National Competency Standards Framework for Pharmacists in Australia 2016 (the revised competency standards) will be implemented in the assessment of pharmacy interns.

The following advice is provided for current and future interns, intern training program (ITP) providers and other interested stakeholders.

The Board and APC have agreed that all pharmacy intern written and oral examinations conducted from 1 January 2019, as part of the Board’s registration examination, will be based on the revised competency standards.

Until then, the 2010 competencies will continue to be the basis for the pharmacy intern written and oral examinations. This is to ensure natural justice and procedural fairness to all interns who start the internship process during 2018.

The APC is also providing separate advice to ITP providers, including that all ITP and workplace-based assessments in 2018 can continue to be based on the 2010 competences to allow for a 12 month transition to activities and assessments based on the 2016 competencies from 1 January 2019.