Accreditation of pharmacy intern training programs in Australia and New Zealand

Summary

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (PharmBA) requires interns to complete an accredited intern training program (ITP). This also applies to some pharmacists who qualified outside of Australia.

PharmBA has authorised us to accredit ITPs in Australia. Additionally, the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand (PCNZ) has asked us to assess and make accreditation recommendations on ITPs in New Zealand.

We're currently revising our accreditation process. We cannot accept new accreditation applications until this process is complete.

Time frame:

• Initial accreditation: may take up to 30 months for newly established programs
• Re-accreditation: process starts 12 months before accreditation expires

Cost:

• Accreditation assessment: AU$15,000 (excl. GST) per program
• Annual fee: AU$58 (excl. GST) per intern per year

On this page:

• About ITP accreditation
• Applying for accreditation
• Remaining accredited
• Proposing changes to your program
• Contact information

About ITP accreditation

We accredit ITPs in Australia against the standards for pharmacy programs in Australia and New Zealand.

We also make accreditation recommendations to PCNZ for ITPs in New Zealand. We do this against the New Zealand ITP standards.

These standards ensure that ITPs help graduates to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to begin practice as registered pharmacists.

Back to top

Applying for accreditation

We're currently revising our process for accrediting ITPs.

We cannot accept new accreditation applications until this process is complete.

Once we've finished the revision process, we'll update this page to outline the process of applying for accreditation.

Back to top

Remaining accredited

Reporting

We recognise that many factors can affect whether a program continues to meet the accreditation standards. To help us assess whether your program can remain accredited, you'll need to submit an annual report. This report must contain:

• intern numbers
• staff demographics
• any quality assurance activities you've completed

The Accreditation Committee (the Committee) will review your report and provide you with feedback on it. In some cases, it may need to impose further reporting requirements on your accreditation, based on the report.

In addition to annual reporting, some programs may be required to report against conditions and monitoring requirements that the Committee applied. The Committee will communicate requirements and due dates for this reporting directly to the program provider.

You'll also need to pay the annual fee.

Re-accreditation

We accredit programs against the accreditation standards for up to 3 years. Before the end of this time, we'll contact you to ask you to apply for re-accreditation.

Your accreditation status after re-accreditation may be either:

• accredited
• accredited with conditions, OR
• accreditation withdrawn

In some situations, we may need to consider revoking accreditation. For details about these situations, see the Pharmacy Program Handbook (available soon).

Back to top

Proposing changes to your accredited program

Material (major) changes in a program may affect its ability to meet the accreditation standards. For examples of types of material changes, see the Notification of Change form.

You must tell us as soon as you decide to change anything about your accredited program. Use:

• the Notification of Change form, OR
• email us on accreditation@pharmacycouncil.org.au for a Word document version

Based on this information, the Committee will assess:

• the likely impact of the change
• whether the change requires re-assessing your program's accreditation status
• whether any re-assessment will require a site visit, or whether it can take place by desktop review
• the documentation needed to support re-assessment

If we class your program change as material, you'll need to pay a Material Change fee.

Back to top

Contact information

Email us on accreditation@pharmacycouncil.org.au if you have questions or want to make a complaint about an accredited ITP.