• anaesthesia
• audit
• pain management
• basic sciences

On 31 January 2018, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) released its Labour Mobility Report during an event hosted on its premises. Representatives of the European Commission, fellow pharmacy organisations and other associations working on the realisation of a common training framework (CTF) had the opportunity to learn more about the views of hospital pharmacists on labour mobility and the EAHP’s CTF project.

The report summarises the findings of the survey activity on the attitudes and perspectives of hospital pharmacists on labour mobility by the EAHP. The results collected from the 1039 participating hospital, clinical and community pharmacists in this document are descriptive and represent a snapshot of the current position. Overall, the information collected via the survey shows that hospital pharmacists have an appetite for labour mobility which is currently not realised due to recognition barriers.

The survey activity forms part of the EAHP’s CTF project which the associations embarked on in 2014. Its initiation was influenced, on the one hand, by the Pharmine project and, on the other hand, by the 2013 amendment of the Professional Qualification Directive which created the possibility to set up CTFs. In the first stage of the CTF project, the EAHP worked on securing voluntary agreement across countries about the knowledge, skills and attitudes/behaviours that underpin advanced practice in the hospital sector.

Overall, 85% of hospital pharmacists and heads of hospital pharmacy that participated in the survey would support the creation of a CTF for the hospital pharmacy specialisation. Development of the profession, facilitation of exchange of expertise, standardisation in the quality of education and increase of mobility opportunities are in their opinion benefits to be gained by creating a new tool for automatic cross-border recognition of the hospital pharmacy specialisation.

Moreover, the standardisation of professional training would not only lead to an overall enhancement …