Strategy of knowledge managements for the Cuban pharmaceutical services
Keywords:
Pharmaceutical services, knowledge management, competences, performances.Abstract
Introduction: The World Health Organization has designed a strategy to manage knowledge in the health services. However, the Cuban pharmaceutical services lack of tools to manage knowledge and contribute to the development of competences.
Objective: Design a strategy of knowledge management that allows improving the quality of pharmaceutical services.
Methods: It was developed a social research applied in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Two validated questionnaires were administered to know the use of knowledge and its management, the competences and levels of performance of professionals. A focus group was formed with the officers in order to determine the knowledge on the strategy of ´´Knowledge Management of the Pan-American Office of Health´´ and interviews were applied to investigate on the knowledge and its management, as well as the appreciation on the level of competences and performances of the pharmaceutical personnel.
Results: In Cuba, the activities of the pharmaceutical services are registered with different approaches in documents of the health authorities. It was detected that the strategy of the regional health body has impacted in the health system, but with limited scope. The levels of performance of the professionals in the processes oriented to patients were low. The interviews to the officers showed no clarity on the competences that a pharmacist must have. These results allowed to determine the components of the strategy, their relations, the premises, principles and general features were stated, in order to adapt it to the changes and to guarantee functioning in uncertain conditions.
Conclusions: The strategy is subordinated to the policies of the Ministry of Public Health and it is formed by five components. At the same time, it fosters the assessment and improves the performance of the assistance pharmacist; it has the needed flexibility and contributes to the development of competences in the professionals of pharmaceutical services.
