The health coaching competency gap - Analysis of pharmacist competency frameworks from Australia, Canada, New Zealand the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Abstract

The traditional competency frameworks for coaches, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) disregard the differences in expertise required among the diverse professions that may provide coaching. A recent systematic review has identified competencies specific to health professionals who health coach. There are increasing workload pressures in primary care; pharmacists can potentially shift to the greater provision of health promotion services, such as health coaching. The provision of such services needs to be underpinned by competency frameworks, which support the role of pharmacists as health coaches. This analysis identifies the competency gaps for pharmacists if they are to take on the role of health coaching. The enabling competencies of health coaches were compared to the competency frameworks of pharmacists from Australia (AUS), Canada (CAN), New Zealand (NZ), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Correlations between the international pharmacist competency frameworks and the competencies enabling health coaching showed that entry to practice pharmacists from AUS, CAN and NZ all require training enabling the health coaching competency 'demonstrates confidence', whereas competency frameworks for pharmacists from both the UK and the USA included all competencies required to health coach. Although pharmacists from the countries examined had most of the competencies required to health coach, gaps within the international pharmacist competency frameworks were apparent, university curricula addressing these gaps would equip entry to practice pharmacists with the knowledge and understanding to confidently provide emerging professional pharmacy services such as health coaching.