Pharmacist personas: A tool to guide learning and career development

Abstract

Healthcare systems worldwide are grappling with workforce crises, prompting policy interventions that expand the clinical roles of healthcare professionals. This essay examines the challenges associated with the increasing responsibilities of pharmacists, particularly within the context of the UK’s policy aimed at achieving a unified “one pharmacy workforce.” This policy envisions pharmacists playing expanded roles in patient care, including enhanced clinical services with an increasing level of independent prescribing. However, there is currently a fragmented approach to training, support, and career progression, which varies substantially across hospital, primary care, and community pharmacy settings. This essay highlights the significant disparities in professional development opportunities across these settings, which hinder the realisation of a unified pharmacy workforce. To address this, we argue that the development of “pharmacist personas” can offer a tool to guide pharmacists’ learning and career development in their evolving roles. Drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical theory, pharmacist personas can be seen as existing in the space between the “frontstage” (the social mask) and the “backstage” (the true self), becoming deeply embedded within pharmacists’ professional identity work. Personas offer pharmacists a tool to visualise their future professional roles and elucidate the learning to attain them. By providing concrete examples of professional trajectories, personas can guide learning and career development. A policy focused solely on expanding the role of pharmacists is insufficient. It needs to be supported with systemic improvements in training and support to ensure a sustainable “one pharmacy workforce” that meets the evolving needs of healthcare systems.

Introduction

Health policies in many countries have attempted to address the workforce crisis by introducing skill mix and task-shifting. ¹ This involves introducing new roles or expanding the scope of existing roles to allow redistribution of tasks from doctors to other healthcare professionals. ² However, for this approach to be effective, there is a need to refocus the education and training of healthcare professionals in a way that enhances their competencies. ³ The absence of such training and support can lead to apprehension and hinder the adoption of new and expanded roles and responsibilities.

This essay focuses on the expansion of pharmacists’ roles. Pharmacists’ work has always included a patient-facing component. ‘Patient-centred pharmaceutical care’, which emerged in the 1990s, focuses on pharmacists taking more responsibility, not only for dispensing the correct medication but for a greater social good by reducing drug-related morbidity and mortality. Clinical pharmacy gained prominence from the 1980s to reflect the nature of pharmacists’ expanded roles in hospitals, moving away from the dispensary and onto wards, where they had more contact with patients and became members of the multidisciplinary team. In general practice and community pharmacy, the scope of practice for pharmacists is expanding globally. ⁴ Pharmacists are now increasingly involved in medication reviews, chronic disease management, preventive care, and health promotion, and are becoming integral to primary healthcare.

In the UK, pharmacists have been able to qualify as independent prescribers since 2006; however, this requires obtaining an additional qualification, which can be pursued after 2 years of relevant pharmacy work experience. There is an unprecedented policy move to expand pharmacists’ roles, with all newly qualified pharmacists becoming independent prescribers starting in 2026.^5,6 This means that newly qualified pharmacists will be able to prescribe autonomously upon registration. This policy shift carries implications for patient safety, particularly considering the limited support available to newly qualified pharmacists entering independent practice. ⁷ These are critical issues which warrant in-depth analysis and development of innovative support mechanisms.

This essay will start by describing the pharmacy context in the NHS in England and propose that pharmacist personas can be a valuable tool to guide pharmacists’ learning and career development in their evolving roles.

The case of pharmacy in the NHS in England

The UK government’s 10 Year Plan emphasised the importance of a unified “one pharmacy workforce” approach, capable of meeting evolving community roles and the need for clinical, patient-facing roles across all pharmacy settings. Pharmacists are to play a significantly expanded role in patient care, including enhanced clinical services with (increasing levels of) independent prescribing. ⁸ In 2023, the government published its first comprehensive NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, setting out a strategic direction and pragmatic actions, with a focus on shifting care from hospitals into the community.

Pharmacists work in various settings, most commonly hospitals, community pharmacies, and general practice. Beyond these, some work in care homes, mental health or health and justice (prison) services, in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. There are increasing number of pharmacists who practise as portfolio pharmacists (i.e. working across different settings) and as locum pharmacists. While the policy intention is for a unified “one pharmacy workforce”, the current approach to training, support, and career progression remains fragmented and varies depending on the practice setting.

In hospital pharmacy, where clinical practice/roles were first established (since 1980s/90s), the growth of specialist clinical and technical roles continues to be central to high-quality medicine optimisation. ⁹ The uptake of independent prescribing has been highest and most established here, with pharmacists working as active prescribers in different clinical areas. A 2024 survey of 1372 UK pharmacists across all settings revealed that 53% of hospital pharmacists held independent prescribing status. ¹⁰ Traditionally, hospital pharmacists work in multidisciplinary teams and are provided with formal and informal training and structures (including supervision) to support progression from newly qualified to advanced and consultant-level roles. Hospital pharmacists typically have a more defined career progression, with advanced and consultant-level roles that align more readily with the framework developed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (pharmacists’ leadership body). Career progression exists in hospital pharmacy and is linked to increased remuneration. This contrasts with other sectors, where career advancement is flatter and less structured.

In primary care, in part to address the shortage of doctors, there is a policy move to increase the number of pharmacists working in general practice. According to NHS England Digital workforce data, there are 5494 full-time equivalent pharmacists working in general practice across England as of December 2024, which is approximately 10% of pharmacists registered in England. The expansion of pharmacists’ roles since 2019, aimed at increasing patients’ access, resulted in an increasing number of pharmacists delivering patient-facing, clinical services alongside GPs and as part of multidisciplinary teams. This is a significant change, which the government actively supported through the NHS England funded Pharmacy Integration Fund, including a mandatory 18-months training pathway, which also funds protected learning time, access to practice-based clinical and remote education supervisors, and independent prescribing training.

Similarly, in community pharmacies, pharmacists have been delivering an increasing number of clinical, patient-facing services, commonly working under strict clinical protocols known as patient group directions (PGDs). PGDs enable the supply of medicines that would otherwise require a prescription. The most recent service is Pharmacy First, which enables pharmacists to manage patients with one of seven common conditions, such as shingles, sinusitis, and sore throat. The use of PGDs sets the path towards incorporating independent prescribing into these clinical services in community pharmacies. The NHS Community Pharmacy Independent Prescribing Pathfinder Programme is currently underway to establish a framework for the future commissioning of NHS community pharmacy clinical services that incorporate independent prescribing, and an evaluation is underway. Nevertheless, unlike in NHS settings, there is no established funding, structure or culture of supporting newly qualified pharmacists in their often isolated roles, working as sole pharmacists. While the government envisioned expanding clinical services within community pharmacies, it fails to address how career progression and remuneration would align with these expanded roles and responsibilities.

Newly qualified pharmacists as independent prescribers from 2026

Newly qualified healthcare professionals face many challenges during the transition to independent practice. Transition to practice is an under-researched area in pharmacy, but lessons can be learned from the transition experiences of novice doctors and nurses. ¹¹ Three main types of challenges experienced by novice doctors and nurses during the transition to independent practice include personal challenges (such as fear, anxiety, stress and emotional labour), social challenges (such as getting support and acceptance from colleagues and dealing with organisational culture, hierarchy, or interpersonal conflict) and job-related challenges (which included high workloads, complex tasks, staffing shortages, rotations, and shift patterns).

It is important to articulate that newly qualified pharmacists should not be expected to be fully formed practitioners at the point of registration, just as in other professions. Nevertheless, support differs significantly between settings, with a limited support introduced into community pharmacy only very recently through the newly qualified pharmacist pathway. ⁷ However, the need for support and available supervision is likely to be even more relevant in 2026 when UK pharmacists will qualify as independent prescribers at the point of registration. Support and supervision for newly qualified pharmacists will be important to ensure patient safety, delivered by competent and confident pharmacist clinicians. This support needs to not only be available, but also have wide engagement ensured regardless of the settings in which pharmacists work, preparing them for the next steps in their clinical careers, which include independent prescribing.

There are significant differences in career advancements and support structures across pharmacy settings, with formal and informal support and pathways existing in NHS settings but no mandated pathways or funded learning time in community pharmacy (and uptake of what is on offer is limited). This creates challenges in achieving the policy intention of having a “one pharmacy workforce”.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), the professional body for pharmacists in Great Britain, received approval in March 2025 to become The Royal College of Pharmacy. This move to become a Royal College is perceived as crucial for elevating the profession’s standing and bolstering its credibility with the public, policymakers, and other healthcare professionals. It will support improved education, assessment, professional standards, and career advancement. A key component of the RPS and Royal College strategy is prioritising credentialing, which could create a defined professional career structure with clear advancement pathways to support pharmacists’ professional and learning development.

Conceptualisation of personas

The term “persona” originates from Latin and denotes a “mask” that actors would put on to portray various roles and characters on the stage. Personas are most often used to refer to the multiple aspects of an individual’s character that are presented and perceived by others at certain times and places, and in specific roles, such as a politician, a celebrity, or a pharmacist. The term ‘persona’ leans towards the idea of someone acting as a role model. In this sense, the term alludes to a performance that involves some form of representation of a ‘self’ in a way that tells a compelling story to a selected audience. Marshall et al. (2020) described this process as a “projection and a performance of individuality” in which a persona is strategically deployed “to negotiate one’s self into various collectives” ¹² (p. 3). Put differently, persona is not an individual but rather as Jung (1928) ¹³ argued, “a complicated system of relations between the individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual” (p. 503). This does not necessarily suggest deception but rather an inevitable compromise between the inner (individual) and outer world (social). Establishing this ‘public persona’ is neither static nor given and will change throughout a person’s lifetime depending on individual stages and circumstances such as age, gender, and social status.

Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical theory provides an important contribution to the conceptualisation of personas by elaborating on the idea of performance in which an individual selects various fronts (personal, social) to enact their role within a given setting. ¹⁴ As the fronts are already established, and so are largely fixed, the challenge lies in selecting the ‘correct’ one. Goffman provided an example from the medical setting in which the fronts presented by a nurse and a doctor were highly differentiated based on pay grade and perceptions of competence, which were directly derived from this. The front that was maintained by a nurse rendered them ‘under-ranked’ to administer anaesthesia while a doctor ‘over-ranked’. This can be explained by the fact that performance is routinised and socialised in a way that seeks to fit “the understanding and expectations of the society in which it is presented” (p. 35). Personas can be seen as existing in the space between what Goffman termed the “frontstage” (the social mask we present) and the “backstage” (our true selves). In the context of pharmacists, personas must move beyond mere role-playing and become deeply embedded within the pharmacists’ professional identity work. ⁹

Application of personas

Personas has been primarily applied in marketing and user design/experience in human-computer interaction. Personas encompass a broader range of attributes, including demographics, behaviours, and motivations. Even the presentation of these concepts can differ, with personas often featuring a human face and biographical information, contrasting with Jungian archetypes that might focus more on core behaviours.

Cooper (1999) ¹⁵ introduced persona as a tool to deal with failures in software design that were largely caused by programmers who neglected the human aspect in the design process. In the age of technology and mass production, this human-design element, in which “users are studied, use scenarios are defined and […] behaviour is described” tends to be overlooked. Cooper proposed to use persona as a fictional archetype representing user needs, experiences, behaviours, and goals. With more specific, idiosyncratic details, the persona becomes a “real” person in the minds of the developers” (p. 128). This resonates with Pruitt and Grudin’s (2003) ¹⁶ problematisation of personas, which they consider as an important conduit of issues that have social and political consciousness, such as gender, age, race, ethnicity, family, or socio-economic background.

Similar to Cooper, Jenkinson (1994) ¹⁷ used personas as a way to view customer segments as a coherent identity. By grouping customers according to their shared attitudes and behaviours, they argued that this provided better insight into potential buying patterns based on life-like experiences, beliefs, values and feelings that surpassed the information from the segmentation. The personas are therefore based on real data, which is aggregated, and function as proxies for real-world users collectively representing their shared characteristics. In user experience research, personas were used to depict people’s behaviours, motivations, and needs in a particular context, which affect how people understand and use things in their daily lives and can include how these factors may change over time ¹⁸

Personas have also been used as a learning tool to reframe practice and in supporting professional development. Zagallo et al. (2019) ¹⁹ highlighted the utility of personas as a reflective tool to better understand the needs of learners in their professional development. Similarly, Masden et al. (2014) ²⁰ argued that conventional professional development resources are often too broad, including either too much or too little information. Instead, the persona approach tends to resonate with diverse type of learners. The use of personas, as has been applied in various professional practices, shows the value of personas in offering a detailed, research-backed, and human-centred representation of a specific user type.

How can pharmacist personas guide learning and career development?

Over the last decade, the professional identity of pharmacists has been evolving from ‘dispenser’, ‘scientist’, and ‘business person’ to ‘clinician’. ⁹ Pharmacists’ undergraduate education and training programmes have been adapted to equip them for their evolving roles and identities, to ensure their legitimacy. However, due to the structural constraints within pharmacy settings, simply providing learning opportunities is insufficient to create meaningful change. Experience is fundamental, particularly when combined with guidance and support at key transition points. Crucially, this includes educational supervision and a clearly defined career trajectory. These elements align with the Royal College status, as they are essential components of a robust professional development framework.

While attempts and approaches to create more effective and fulfilling careers for pharmacists through supervision, mentorship, and Communities of Practice (CoPs) are valuable for career development, they have inherent limitations in pharmacy. These formal structures don’t really exist consistently in pharmacy; hence, there are no clear structures or career pathways for pharmacists, who can work in a wide range of sectors and settings. Pharmacists are often unaware of the full range of career options available to them or how to pursue them. Personas offer a practical solution to bridge this specific knowledge and navigation gap. In so doing, they are fundamentally different from existing career and learning support available to pharmacists because they operate on an internal, psychological level as a cognitive and narrative tool. Their power lies in helping a professional answer the question of “Who do I want to be?” rather than “What do I need to do?”.

Personas can offer a tool for pharmacists to visualise their future professional roles and elucidate the learning to attain them. This process of visualisation helps bridge the gap between a current professional identity and an aspirational one, building the confidence, competence, and motivation needed to embrace their new and expanded roles. By embodying concrete examples of future pharmacists, pharmacist personas can demonstrate not only what is achievable but also how to achieve it. As the saying goes, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” Personas provide that tangible vision.

Discussion

This essay has explored the significant challenges facing pharmacists in the context of the expansion of their roles to more clinical patient-facing roles and to a unified ‘one pharmacy’ workforce. The policy direction is for pharmacists to provide enhanced clinical services, acting as autonomous clinicians and independent prescribers, and to integrate pharmacy services with the wider healthcare system. However, the profession is currently grappling with a complex interplay of pressures, including rising demand, persistent vacancies, and burnout. ¹¹ These issues are compounded by the diverse landscape of pharmacy practice, as well as a lack of clear career progression, varied opportunities, and support in different settings, which consequently impact access to and support for career and learning opportunities.

Pharmacist personas, as argued in this essay, can provide a tangible and relatable vision of future careers and the necessary steps to achieve them. By embodying concrete examples of ‘successful’ pharmacists in diverse roles, personas can bridge the gap between aspiration and reality, demonstrating not only what is possible but also how to get there. However, the development and implementation of pharmacist personas require careful consideration. They must be realistic, relatable, and reflective of the diversity within the profession. This includes representing pharmacists from different backgrounds, working in various settings, and pursuing diverse career paths. Furthermore, the personas should not simply be aspirational figures but also portray the challenges and obstacles that pharmacists may encounter along the way, as well as capture the essential and transferable skills required throughout their careers.

It is important to recognise that personas are just one tool among many. They should be integrated into a broader (pharmacy) workforce strategy that addresses the systemic challenges facing the profession. These include improving working conditions, increasing protected learning time, and providing better support (which includes supervision) for pharmacists at key transition points. This will be particularly important for newly qualified pharmacists who qualify as independent prescribers from 2026, as well as for those moving towards advanced and consultant-level practice.

In conclusion, this essay argues that a policy focusing solely on increasing training places and expanding roles will be insufficient to address the multifaceted challenges that pharmacists currently face. Pharmacist personas offer a promising approach to navigating the complex challenges that the profession faces. By providing tangible visions, pharmacist personas can inspire, motivate, and empower pharmacists to practise with confidence, shape their careers, embrace lifelong learning, and contribute to becoming one pharmacy workforce that benefits patient care and outcomes.