Views, attitudes and self-assessed training needs of Scottish community pharmacists to public health practice and competence.

Objective: To assess the education and training needs of community pharmacists to support the delivery of an expanded public health role. Setting Community pharmacy in Scotland.

Method: Two focus groups of community pharmacists (n = 4 in each) in geographically distinct regions of Scotland explored issues of public health function, competencies and education and training.

Developing consensus around the pharmaceutical public health competencies for community pharmacists in Scotland.

Objective: The new community pharmacy contract in Scotland will formalise the role of pharmacists in delivering public health services. To facilitate assessment of education and training needs it is necessary to define the relevant public health competencies for community pharmacists. The objective of this research was to define and develop consensus around such competencies.