Pharmacy board changes specialist testing
Pharmacy board changes specialist testing
The Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties (BPS) has revamped the focus and scoring weights on the tests it gives for a pair of specialty certifications. Also, the board has scheduled its 1998 testing date for Oct. 3rd for all five of the specialties it certifies: nuclear pharmacy, nutrition support pharmacy, pharmacotherapy, psychiatric pharmacy, and oncology pharmacy. Testing will be offered in 18 U.S. cities.
As to testing changes, the board’s nutrition support specialty exam has been updated from its 1990 focus by increasing or decreasing the percentages of category scores toward final certification. Called role delineations, the testing categories have been updated to reflect the roles pharmacists are taking on in the real world of health care.
For the nutrition support speciality, increases in home care and ambulatory infusion therapy have prompted the testing changes, says BPS nutrition support speciality chairman Rex Brown, MD, professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy in Memphis. In the new test, patient assessment, monitoring, and management have increased in importance, while therapeutic planning, services management, and strategies for advancing the practice have decreased, although overall the changes amount to no more than nine percentage points toward final scoring in either direction.
The board’s oncology speciality has undergone more basic changes, now offering four scoring categories weighted as 60% on drug therapy design, monitoring, and outcomes, 20% on general knowledge, 15% on policy collaboration, and 5% on public health issues.
You can find out more details by calling the board at (202) 429-7591.
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