Intern pharmacists resit pass rate ‘in line with pre-pandemic times’

NEARLY 70 PER CENT of the intern pharmacists who last year failed their clinical exams and resat in May have passed.

The Assessment Centre in November had an abnormally high failure rate of 53 per cent and there were 118 interns resitting the exam this year. Of these, 79 (67.9 per cent) passed the resit and have qualified as pharmacists. The results were made public on 15 June in the Pharmacy Council newsletter.

A 10-station objective structured clinical examination, the Assessment Centre tests clinical skills and is the final hurdle intern pharmacists must pass before they become qualified.

One intern who passed the resit is Christchurch pharmacist Micah Woodfield, who co-owns Pharmacy Xtra. Mr Woodfield says the May exam was harder and he did not think he had passed. He spoke to several fellow interns who felt the same way.

So when he got the news a few days ago that he had passed, he was elated.

“This has been the best news all year,” he says. “With staff shortages, and all the restrictions put in place on being a pharmacy owner as an intern, qualifying was my number one goal for this year. Getting that news has just been the best thing ever.”

Mr Woodfield says his preceptor put him contact with Christchurch pharmacist and Independent Pharmacists’ Association of New Zealand co-leader Jie Choong, who helped tutor him on exam questions. He also attended training evenings for interns, organised by local pharmacists.

“A lot of the help ended up coming from pharmacists and other people close to pharmacy who gave up their own time to support the interns,” he says.

The high failure rate in November prompted calls from many pharmacists and interns for the Assessment Centre to be reworked so such a high failure rate did not happen again.

Pharmacy Council chief executive Michael Pead says he is pleased the results are better and more “in line with pre-pandemic times”.

“It is great that the pass rate was at the level we more typically experience, and we are optimistic that the November 2022 results were an exception,” Mr Pead says. It is premature to say the 2022 result was a “blip” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he adds.

There were no major changes to the May Assessment Centre, compared to the November one, he says. Efforts were made to reduce the anxiety of interns sitting the exam, which was identified as a possible factor in the November result, along with their studies being disrupted by the pandemic.

“We stand by, as we did in November, that our assessment procedures are robust,” Mr Pead says.

The assessment aims to replicate real life situations to test more than a 100 people at the same time, so setting it fairly and consistently is complex, he says.

“It requires huge preparation by pharmacists, actors [as patients] and educational experts.”

Interns who did not pass the resit will have another opportunity in November.