Pharmacy interns are failing their training at an alarming rate, sparking calls for an investigation.
This year more than half of pharmacy interns failed their final assessment and it has pharmacists worried.
Pharmacy Council chief executive Michael Pead said in a statement the Assessment Centre results saw 47 percent of 208 eligible interns pass, compared to a usual pass rate of closer to 70 percent.
The assessment is the final step for pharmacy interns to qualify to practice, without supervision, as pharmacists. Interns work through ten cases that replicate real-life situations that occur in pharmacy practice. Each case is written and reviewed by at least 30 different pharmacists from the profession, and on the assessment day, 60 pharmacists take part as assessors.
Most interns who did not pass this year's assessment have the opportunity to re-sit the exam in six months' time.
Award-winning pharmacist and Nutrition Medicine founder Martin Harris, from Massey Unichem, said while it is important for the public's health that there is a safety net, it is an issue so many interns failed.
"There is no doubt that with more than half falling there is a problem somewhere," Harris told Melissa Chan-Green on AM on Thursday.
He said these pharmacy interns have passed all their university qualifications and have spent a year with a preceptor pharmacist, an experienced practising pharmacist who has trained to teach students. A lot of the students have passed all their assignments throughout the year and their preceptor has judged them as safe but the assessment centre has failed them.
Pharmacies are grappling with staffing shortages which are causing pharmacists to work long hours.
Harris said he just had his first couple of days off work after working seven-day weeks for six months.
There are currently 150 job listings under 'pharmacy' on SEEK.
The main solution to ease the staffing shortage would be training Kiwi pharmacists by having the pharmacy schools full and students being able to pass, Harris said.
He wants an investigation into why such a large number of students failed this year.
Harris said there is a lot of "secrecy" around the Assessment Centre and feedback given to students is very broad and general so they don't know what they have done wrong.
"It just seems hard to believe that of those 100 plus intern pharmacists that were judged as not yet ready to be pharmacists, that there is that many that aren't ready having done the work," Harris said.
"I'm not blaming anyone in particular but it needs a thorough review, a thorough investigation as to why."
The Pharmacy Council said in a media release they have reviewed the examination set for interns and are confident of its integrity, which has also been confirmed through psychometric analysis. The Pharmaceutical Society, as the key deliverer of the Assessment Centre, has also stated that they are confident that the standards of assessment and all related processes have been completed to the usual high standard.
Pead said improving the success rate of interns qualifying to practice will be the focus of the next education provider forum the Pharmacy Council is hosting in the New Year.
