Pharmacy executive leadership issues and associated skills, knowledge, and abilities.

OBJECTIVES: To identify challenges that current and future pharmacy executives are facing or will face in the future and to define what skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKAs) are required to successfully negotiate these challenges. DESIGN: Delphi method for executive decision making. SETTING: Civilian pharmacy profession. PARTICIPANTS: 110 pharmacists who graduated from the GlaxoSmithKline Executive Management Program for Pharmacy Leaders. INTERVENTIONS: Two iterations of the Delphi method for executive decision making separated by an expert panel content analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Round 1--participants were asked to identify five major issues they believed to be of greatest importance to pharmacy leaders in the next 5-10 years and name specific SKAs that might be needed by future leaders to successfully deal with those issues. An expert panel reviewed the issues, classified issues into specific domains, and titled each domain. Round 2-participants rated the SKAs on a 7-point scale according to their individual assessment of importance in each domain. RESULTS: For Delphi rounds 1 and 2, response rates were 21.8% and 18.2%, respectively. More than 100 total issue statements were identified. The expert panel sorted the issues into five domains: management and development of the pharmacy workforce, pharmacy finance, total quality management of work-flow systems, influences on the practice of pharmacy, and professional pharmacy leadership. Five of the top 15 SKAs-and all four highest ranked items--came from the professional pharmacy leadership domain, including ability to see the big picture, ability to demonstrate the value of pharmacy services, ability to lead and manage in an ethical manner, and skills for influencing an organization's senior leadership. CONCLUSION: Through successful integration of communication skills, critical thinking, and problem solving techniques, future public-sector pharmacy executives will be better equipped to effectively position their organizations and the profession for the challenges that lie ahead.

Perception of managerial and administrative competencies of professional pharmacists in the U.S. Department of Defense.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether executive and junior pharmacists perceive skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKA) items differently. DESIGN: Two-factor split-plot analysis of variance (ANOVA) mixed design with repeated measures. SETTING: U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fifty-one active duty pharmacy officers in DoD, classified as either executive pharmacists (serving in the military grades of lieutenant colonel/commander [0-5] and colonel/captain [0-6], as well as pharmacists selected for promotion to those grades) or junior pharmacists (serving in the military grades of second lieutenant/ensign [0-1], first lieutenant/lieutenant junior grade [0-2], and captain/lieutenant [0-3], as well as pharmacists selected for promotion to those grades). INTERVENTION: Seven-point relative importance rating scales, with 1 = extremely unimportant to 7 = extremely important, were used to assess respondents' judgments of SKAs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Main effects of group membership (executive versus junior pharmacists), differences among items within eight specific domains, and assessment of potential interaction effects for the dependent variable of SKA item importance ratings. RESULTS: No main effects for overall rating differences between pharmacist groups were found for any of the eight domains; however, statistically significant and systematic within-main-effect differences were detected for SKA items in all domains. Additionally, statistically significant interaction effects emerged in five of the eight domains. CONCLUSION: The importance ratings given SKAs in the domains of human resources, pharmacy operations and business practices, drug therapy management, and leadership were highly similar between the two groups. However, executive pharmacists tended to place a much greater emphasis on the importance of SKAs within the financial resources and the pharmacy benefit management domains.

Pharmacy executives: leadership issues and associated skills, knowledge, and abilities in the U.S. Department of Defense.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the issues or problems that current and aspiring U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) pharmacy executives will face in the future and to define the skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKAs) required to successfully address these issues. DESIGN: Delphi method for executive decision making. SETTING: DoD. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-three pharmacists serving in the military grades of lieutenant colonel/commander and colonel/captain, as well as pharmacists selected for promotion to those grades. INTERVENTIONS: iterations of the Delphi method for executive decision making separated by an expert panel content analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Round 1--participants identified five major issues believed to be of greatest importance to pharmacy executives and reported specific SKAs that might be needed to successfully manage those issues. An expert panel sorted these issues into meaningful domains, then provided an appropriate title for each domain. Round 2--on a 7-point scale, respondents rated the SKA items according to their assessment of how much a future DoD pharmacy executive would need each SKA. RESULTS: Response rates were 44.1% and 46.2% for Delphi rounds 1 and 2, respectively. The first round generated 62 unique issues facing pharmacy executives. The expert panel reviewed and sorted the issues into eight domains and selected an appropriate title for each domain. The domains identified by the panel were human resources, pharmacy operations/business practices, information management and technology, financial resources, formulary management, drug therapy management, pharmacy benefit management, and leadership. During round 2, 73.3% of the top 15 rated SKAs came from the drug therapy management, leadership, and formulary management domains. The three highest-rated SKAs were "ability to see the big picture," "ability to build strong relations with medical staffs," and "skills in both writing and verbal communication." CONCLUSION: The issues facing future DoD pharmacy executives will require them to expand their clinical abilities as well as their ability to collaborate and communicate with other professionals.

Predictors of course completion for the U.S. Army pharmacy specialist course.

The purpose of this study was to determine predictors of successful completion of the U.S. Army Medical Department pharmacy specialist (91Q) training program. The sample consisted of 143 students from four course iterations, and only students enrolled in the course for the first time were included for analysis. The relationship between 16 predictor variables and successful completion was assessed. Five variables, the ranks of private (E1) and specialist (E4), cross-trainee status, gender, and Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) general technical (GT) score, were found to be significant predictors using simple linear regression. Using hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis, three variables, service component, gender, and ASVAB GT score, were found to have a significant unique shared variance with success. The results of this study indicate that ASVAB GT scores are predictive of success (p < 0.01) in the 91Q training program. Using these predictors, the selection process may be modified to improve the likelihood of student success in the course.