Core competency frameworks for the education of pharmacists in Türkiye: EczÇEP-2015 and EczÇEP-2019

Education in pharmaceutical sciences is a major concern in every nation. It has many stakeholders in different categories, who are in expectation of a satisfactory level in terms of skills, competencies, knowledge, etc. As the dynamics of pharmaceutical sciences have been changing due to the tremendous amount of pharmaceutical research, the requirement for a renewal of pharmacy education has emerged in Türkiye. In the year of 2015, this requirement was imposed by The Council of Higher Education of Türkiye (CoHE/YÖK) through the Medicine Health Sciences Education Council of Türkiye (MHSEC/TSBEK), as well as the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association (Türk Eczacılar Birliği, TPA/TEB) plus the influences of global organisations like FIP (The International Pharmaceutical Federation), WHO (World Health Organisation). Subsequently, the Deans Council of Pharmacy Faculties of Türkiye (DCPF), consisting of 32 members, decided immediately to prepare a competency framework for pharmacists in Türkiye and established a sub-committee for this purpose. The sub-committee, which consisted of 25 members as Deans and ViceDeans, has prepared a draft for the competency framework for the pharmacy education and to approve to DCPF, and then MHSEC/TSBEK. After final approval from CoHE/YÖK, the first core competency framework for pharmacists was implemented by the Pharmacy Faculties in Türkiye. After this framework, an updated version was completed in 2019 with a similar process. The second frame work (EczÇEP-2019) is more useful than the first one in terms of its applicability and practise.