Community pharmacy accounts for one of the largest groups of healthcare providers in the world [1], and constitutes an important and expanding healthcare resource for communities in terms of their access to medicines and to health and pharmaceutical advice [2]. The scope of practice of pharmacy has changed substantially over the last 20 years. Traditionally, pharmacists were informal advisers on monitoring medication usage and might have provided some counselling on correct drug information; however, a notable change in recent decades in the pharmacy profession has been the expansion of the role of pharmacists, allowing them to have the authority and accountability needed to achieve complete autonomy in their career. This means that a pharmacist can manage many medication decisions without referral to the prescriber [3]. Pharmacy practice is now focused on pharmaceutical care, rather than on the soft knowledge and skills that were emphasised previously, such as preparing and supplying medicines in patient care [4,5]. Accordingly, the role of the community pharmacist has shifted significantly towards providing more patient-centred care and counselling [1,4,5]. The current health regulatory bodies in Australia, such as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, emphasise the importance of the pharmacist’s clinical role in promoting advanced pharmaceutical care practices and applying the highest possible level of professional competence [6,7].

This study aimed at identifying the definition of professionalism, particularly in relation to pharmacy practice, and critically appraising published instruments for assessing professionalism in pharmacy practice. It sought to identify gaps in the literature with a view to improving professionalism and education of pharmacists—and hence, care provision—in pharmaceutical practice.

This scoping literature review comprised studies identified by searching the Scopus, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO electronic databases. The scoping approach is flexible, as it is not limited to a specific method and strategy and aims to identify a wide range of relevant studies with the goal of determining whether further research is required to explore the topic [9].

The purpose of using scoping in this study was to map the current literature on a specific theme to identify the main concepts underpinning the subject and to investigate existing research gaps to inform pharmacy practice. To do this, the search keywords and terms used were combinations of different derivations of the following words: professionalism, pharmacy, measure, assess, instrument, and tool. Reference lists from those papers identified as pertinent were also examined, and any paper deemed relevant was also considered. Definitions, models, and assessment of professionalism in pharmacy were explored through all papers from the sources.

All papers that assessed professionalism elements such as communication and interaction, estimated students’ opinions regarding any professionalism domain such as accountability and autonomy, or used different evaluation forms to introduce students to professional values and enhance patient-centred professionalism in pharmacy were included. Only papers published from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2018 were included. Studies not written in English, and those that were generally descriptive only or based solely on opinion, were excluded.

The search strategy consisted of the following:

The search yielded 567 studies, of which 52 related particularly to professionalism in pharmacy (Fig. 1). Of these, only 4 studies dealt with the development or use of an instrument or tool to measure professionalism in pharmacy practice. These 4 instruments focused on the effect of curricula in enhancing professionalism among students or assessing pharmacy students by exploring their perceptions of aspects of professionalism.

The papers were selected by the author (HD) according to the eligibility criteria. The 4 eligible papers were further examined in detail by all authors. Author, year of publication, participant type, sample size, factors, reliability (Cronbach’s α), and type of validity were recorded for each eligible paper. In scale development papers, there is no risk of bias to be reported. However, we were concerned about whether the sample size was adequate. The sample size is recommended to be larger than 300, but a size of 150 is sufficient [10].

As described above for data collection, author, year of publication, participant type, sample size, factors, reliability (Cronbach’s α), and type of validity were recorded for each eligible paper.

As discussed above, in scale development papers, there is no risk of bias to be reported. However, we were concerned about whether the sample size was adequate. The sample size is recommended to be larger than 300, but a size of 150 is sufficient.

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

This topic is addressed in the “Professionalism measurements in the literature: study characteristics” section in the paragraphs below.

This topic is addressed in greater detail in the “Professionalism measurements in the literature: study characteristics” section below. In all included papers, the number of study participants was between 231 and 1,202, which suggested sufficient sample sizes for scale development.

The results of individual studies are discussed in the paragraphs below; synthesis of results is not applicable to scale development papers.

While professionalism is recognised as an important quality by professional bodies and higher education providers [11,12], its definition may not be sufficiently clear to practitioners [11], which does not facilitate accurate measurements [13,14]. Definitions and measurements of professionalism in the pharmacy profession have been widely debated in the literature, and finding a holistic definition of professionalism with general acceptance is difficult. Existing definitions focus on, or are built on, descriptive lists of professional tasks. In 1999 the American Pharmacists Association, Academy of Students Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) and the American Association of College of Pharmacy (AACP) Task Force on Pharmacy Professionalism outlined the following 10 essential domains that professional pharmacists should demonstrate in their practice: knowledge and skills of the health profession; service orientation; creativity, innovation and initiative; effective relationships with others; conscience and honesty; commitment to self-improvement through lifelong-learning; ethically sound decision making; leadership; pride in profession; and accountability [13,15].

The Task Force then developed a white paper to promote and evaluate professionalism within pharmacy education programmes [14]. The white paper defined professionalism as “active demonstration of the traits of a professional … displaying values, beliefs, and attitudes that put the needs of another above your personal needs” [16,17].

In addition to the 10 domains of professionalism, the AACP Task Force added an 11th element: punctuality and flexibility [14,18], on the basis that being punctual and flexible is an essential reflection of one’s professional reliability and career values [19].

Professionalism has also been considered in other health care professions. In medicine, for example, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) outlined 3 commitments to professionalism for physicians: a commitment to sustain the interest and well-being of patients; accountability to quality excellence; and a commitment to be responsive to the health requirements of the community. These were followed by 6 additional domains of professionalism expected of physicians: (1) excellence in performance to meet or exceed ordinary expectations and the pursuit of lifelong learning and individual development; (2) altruism in the concern for and prioritising the welfare of patients above self-interest; (3) accountability in being responsible for responding to patients as well as for society and the health profession; (4) honour and integrity, being fair and honest and reflecting credibility in performance; (5) duty of care, including the commitment to assure the safety and health of the patient through provision of high-quality patient care; and (6) respect for others, including patients, their families, peers at work, and other healthcare professionals [20].

Chalmers’ definition of professionalism, which calls for displaying consideration and showing respect for others, empathy, commitment, maintaining boundaries, and confidentiality, harmonises with the definition of the ABIM [16,21]. Hammer et al. [16] further modified the 6 domains of professionalism proposed by the ABIM to suit pharmacy students, particularly noting responsibility, initiative, maturity, appearance, competence, standards, and interpersonal communication skills.

According to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, to demonstrate professionalism, practicing pharmacists must obtain knowledge during their studies and, following graduation, develop the professional attitudes and behaviours necessary to deliver quality pharmaceutical care [19]. In 2014, the International Pharmaceutical Federation defined professionalism for the pharmacist as complying with the quality of behaviours and respect guided by attitudes and moral values, with an additional commitment to achieve what is expected of practitioners to uphold public trust in the profession [22].

The term ‘professionalism’ has been used in different ways. Professionalism has been defined as exhibiting beliefs, principles, and attitudes that serve the best interests of patients above practitioners’ personal interests [23]. Professionalism, in general, can be defined as being useful to the community, acquiring autonomy to allow the individual to make professional judgments without outside help from others, having a sense of responsibility, and performing one’s duty regardless of external rewards. Providing a definition of pharmacy professionalism involves, therefore, a complete clarification of the distinct role of pharmacists, rather than just providing a list of professional components [11]. Professionalism can also be described as behaviour or value aims that distinguish a profession [13].

Debated concepts and interpretations have evolved over time [24] and, while the definitions discussed above grasp the core of professionalism and share many of the elements of professional practice, the actual elements are mostly descriptive, relatively wide-ranging, and imprecise. As the American College of Clinical Pharmacy et al. [25] point out, “no single definition can encompass all applications”; each application is a combination of specific competences, beliefs, and behaviours. Brown and Ferril [26] highlighted that the existing definitions of professionalism in pharmacy focus on devising lists of behavioural elements and do not touch on the depth of interactions that occur within the professional relationship, such as dealing with patients and the healthcare team [27]. The opinions of Brown and Ferril [26] align with Kelley et al. [28], who stated that building on previous definitions without clarification can lead to seeing definitions of professionalism as a set of attitudes and behaviours [28]. There is a need, therefore, to develop a clear, measurable definition of professionalism that encompasses all the required elements in health professions [29].

It is clear that some of the previous definitions describe professionalism as a set of behaviours and attitudes, in addition to specific competencies such as knowledge. Professionalism can also be constructed as a set of internally held principles that can be measured through behaviours [28]. Future pharmacists should acquire these critical elements as part of their professional pharmacy education [19], and be encouraged to reflect on them in their daily activities after they graduate. While professionalism can be recognised when it exists, specifying its exact components is more difficult [23]. With this in mind, an explanation of behaviour and attitude and the relationship between them, in the context of pharmacy professionalism, is an essential element of professional education [13,30]. Additional clarification of the dimensions of behaviours and attitudes will help practitioners determine which elements must be established and measured [13]. As Hammer [17] points out: “Professionalism can be defined by the way it is demonstrated in practice, by its structural items, by the views held by those in the profession or in a values-based manner.” This suggests that professionalism is often exhibited by the demeanour of the pharmacist in professional situations. Thus, professional behaviours relate to how practitioners conduct themselves [16]. Professional behaviour may also reflect a person’s internal moral compass. Such internal attitudes, however, are based on a set of internal principles and beliefs that may not be fully aligned with actual practices [28]. This aspect makes measurement difficult because only what is observable can be measured; external behaviour is observable, but underlying internal attitudes are not.

Nonetheless, many have attempted to measure attitudes as a predictor of behaviour [31,32]. The pharmacist may, however, strive to exhibit professional behaviour, yet simultaneously hold ‘unprofessional’ attitudes [13,33]. This leads to the question: what is the benefit of learning professional attitudes and scientific knowledge without demonstrating suitable behaviour and performance? For example, is it professional for a pharmacist to give a patient health information, but not to assist the patient in making a decision about managing his or her health?

The following scenario illustrates the difficulty of measuring attitudes versus behaviours in pharmacy and shows how difficult it is to measure a pharmacist’s intentions or professional attitudes compared to measuring his or her actual performance and behaviours. As a hypothetical example, a pharmacist gives a patient drug information regarding a new medicine which, although it is more effective than the old medication, has some unpleasant side effects. The patient finds it difficult to choose whether to continue taking the old medication or to try the new one. A pharmacist with good internal intention (professional attitude) might believe that his or her duty is to provide good information and answer any questions the patient may ask, but ultimately believes the decision of which medication to take is entirely the patient’s personal responsibility.

A pharmacist demonstrating professional behaviour, on the other hand, will encourage the patient to ask questions, address those questions and concerns, and suggest solutions to any problems identified by the patient. He or she will do as much as possible to assist the patient to come to the best decision. Thus, the internal intention (attitude) of the pharmacist to assist the patient only if he or she is asked to do so is not enough to demonstrate professionalism, because no assisting behaviour is being carried out by the pharmacist.

This example demonstrates how behaviours can be easily measured, but the underlying attitudes of the professional are not easily determined. It must be noted, however, that since attitudes and behaviours are not independent of each other, practising particular professional behaviours may also, over time, change the practitioner’s professional attitudes [7].

Researchers have conceptualised various models to describe the range of elements needed to be a professional pharmacist, including the umbrella model [13] and the bicycle wheel model [25]. In the umbrella model, the umbrella represents the holistic role of pharmacy education in fostering a student’s future professionalism and places the student (the future pharmacist) as the umbrella’s centre shaft. The ribs radiating from the central shaft represent professionalism domains such as communication skills, empathy and competence, personal values, and knowledge (Fig. 2) [13].

Some of the duties of pharmacists include protecting patients’ confidentiality and preventing harm caused by medications. Similarly, the umbrella model of professionalism serves as a symbol of how pharmacists act to protect patients’ safety and maintain the integrity of pharmaceutical practice.

In the bicycle wheel model, the wheel hub includes a set of critical values, such as integrity and altruism, and the radiating spokes represent pharmacists’ behaviours, such as empathy and respect. The tyre connects all the elements of professionalism and includes aspects such as adhering to professional attire and punctuality. In this model, practitioners’ values are the core of professionalism (Fig. 3) [25] and professionalism for pharmacists relies mostly on performance, interaction, and professional behaviour with patients on a daily basis.

Professionalism is an active, multi-domain concept. Likewise, the bicycle wheel model is dynamic in its regular rotations and spokes. Each spoke signifies a domain of professionalism, which jointly acts to reinforce the wheel. In this model, principles such as honesty and sense of responsibility occupy the centre of the wheel and depict the importance of incorporating such principles into pharmacists' practice, for instance, communication while counselling patients.

Optimal medication management requires active interpersonal collaboration among pharmacists, patients, and healthcare professionals. As pharmacists’ roles change, making them more actively involved in direct patient care, effective communication with patients becomes crucial. Such models may help clarify some of the elements of professionalism and elucidate the relationships between professionalism domains in general and some of the features of the pharmacy profession in particular. These models can facilitate the process of developing and updating professional concepts in pharmacy practice.

Maintaining and enhancing professional behaviour requires measurements. A valid measurement is essential for assessing any behaviour [34]. Berenson [35] emphasised the importance of measurement processes, stating that, “if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it,” meaning that unmeasured parameters cannot be improved [36]. A key feature in the measurement of pharmaceutical professional practice lies in the ability to collect quantified data that can be used in career development, creating a subsequent positive effect on professional performance. The creation of instruments for gathering standardised, measurable data for pharmacists plays a key role in ensuring that the activities of practising pharmacists are suitable, and in evaluating their level of performance to foster their professional growth [37]. Collecting various perspectives from multiple evaluators increases the range of assessment, and in turn the validity and reliability of the measurement [38]. Some studies have examined the development of elements of professional behaviour among students, rather than pharmacists [39,40]. Brown and Ferrill [26] noted, however, that behavioural assessments conducted in pharmacy schools before graduation are prone to be influenced by the students’ enthusiasm to achieve good grades, rather than being reflective of the student’s true values. In contrast, a workplace survey for pharmacists can provide beneficial summative information regarding their professionalism, based on their real performance as practising pharmacists [26]. Collecting such summative data and using feedback is important for evaluating performance, while collecting formative data from learning environments and using feedback is important for improving curricula. Therefore, there is a need to find an effective mechanism or set of instruments for measuring the professionalism of practising pharmacists.

This scoping literature review identified 4 important instruments that have been developed to measure professionalism among pharmacy students and 2 examples of how particular instruments have been applied in pharmacy settings.

The 4 instruments identified from the literature review are: (1) Behavioural Professionalism Assessment Instrument (BPAI) [16]; (2) Lerkiatbundit’s instrument [41]; (3) Pharmacy Professionalism Instrument (PPI) [42]; and (4) Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) [28].

All 4 instruments involved developing and refining a survey to improve validity and consistency. Of these, 2 measured professional behaviours among students [16,28], and 2 studies explored the measurement of professionalism attitudes [41,42]. Chronologically, Hammer et al. [16] created an objective survey tool for measuring professional behaviours in pharmacy, based on various student evaluation forms collected from pharmacy and medical schools. Lerkiatbundit [41] reviewed a previously published instrument and refined and adapted it to measure professional attitudes. Chisholm et al. [42] based their survey items on measuring the professional attitudes detailed in the 6 domains of professionalism proposed by the ABIM among student populations; and finally, in 2011, Kelley et al. [28] developed a survey instrument to measure professional behaviours in pharmacy education. In all included papers, the number of study participants was between 231 and 1,202, which suggested sufficient sample sizes for scale development.

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

None (not applicable in scale development papers).

Only 4 instruments measuring professionalism in pharmacy practice were identified in the literature. The 4 instruments were similar in terms of the targeted population, namely, students. Furthermore, the instruments were developed after 2000. All the instruments built directly on the 6 domains of professionalism proposed by the ABIM [16] and the instruments were in accordance with the 2000 white paper on student professionalism published by the American Pharmaceutical Association-Academy of Students of Pharmacy/American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy-Council of Deans Task Force on Professionalism [49]. Additionally, in developing these instruments, the assessment method of professionalism used in the 4 tools focused on self-administered surveys with rating scales.

The included measurements used a self-reporting format. Response bias is a problem in research using self-reporting instruments. This bias is greater for questions relating to the quality of performance of the person self-reporting, with people tending to present their performance as better than it is [51]. An observational approach to assess performance may be better as it less biased, but it is technically complicated and challenging to do, with a need for more resources, and may have its own inherent biases. A possible way to minimise bias in self-reporting is to restrict self-reporting to the frequency and description of behaviours rather than an assessment of their quality [51].

In this review, we used “professionalism” as our keyword in the search. However, there may be studies that measured professionalism or its dimensions without using this particular term, and they would have been omitted from our search. Another limitation is that we focused on scale development papers, and may have neglected the rigorous information available in qualitative studies.

Professional behaviour is crucial in everyday practice, as pharmacists are expected to demonstrate qualities such as politeness, respect, and courtesy in dealing with patients and others. High-quality measurements of such behaviours are essential for assessing any behavioural improvement. The instruments presented to date in the literature have focused on measuring elements of professionalism among students, rather than practising pharmacists. This paper reviewed 4 important instruments developed to measure professionalism dimensions in pharmacy education. Further research is now needed on professionalism in pharmacists, and it is necessary to move from assessments in students to those now in practice. The challenge now is to develop and validate a tool for measuring pharmacists’ professional performance in the workplace. Such a tool would help in collecting standardised and measurable data for pharmacists that would be used to ensure that the activities of practising pharmacists are suitable, and to evaluate their level of performance to foster their professional growth. By doing this we can ensure improved standards of care to the community.