An analysis of Diploma of Public Health Program (Technical Pharmacy) based on professional competence

Abstract

To analyze the Diploma of Public Health Program (Technical Pharmacy) based on professional competence and to measure competence level of the curriculum. This was a descriptive study using documentary analysis. The behavioral objectives and credit hours were data collected from the syllabi of the curriculum. The instruments for data collection were 2-dimensional and 4-dimensional matrices. The first matrix was used to map between the behavioral objectives and content topic, while the 4-dimensional matrix mapped objectives with pharmacy technician competence, professional competence, and level of competence. The analysis revealed that the core requirement consisted of 31 subjects with a total of 80 credit hours. All content topics corresponded with 220 objective items classified into 3 teaching methods, lecture, practice, and trainee accounted for 62.5%, 25.0%, and 12.5% of required credit hours respectively. Fifteen subjects under technical pharmacy area with a total of 38 credit hours could be divided into 15.76 credit hours of pharmacy service, 9.62 of public health pharmacy, 9.54 of pharmaceutical production, and 3.08 of pharmaceutical inventory management. The curriculum contained all 5 professional competence domains with 75% of the required credit hours focusing on knowledge/cognitive (32.24 credit hours) and functional competence (27.05 credit hours) but minimum emphasis on both personal/behavioral and values/ethical competences. The assessment on competence level reflected that the curriculum put more weights on “knows how” level with 36.58 credit hours. The study concluded that the Diploma of Public Health Program (Technical Pharmacy) possessed all dimensions of competences, however the share of each element needed further justification.