Training Status and Self-Reported Training Coverage of Clinical Pharmacists Across Chinese Secondary and Tertiary Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize training coverage across different knowledge and skill domains among clinical pharmacists in China and identify variations across domains, providing nationwide evidence to inform training curriculum optimization and future development of clinical pharmacist training programs. Methods: A nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted using a multistage sampling method to collect data on demographic characteristics, training experiences, and self-reported training coverage across 13 knowledge and skill domains among clinical pharmacists. Descriptive statistics summarized the sample characteristics, and subgroup analyses compared differences in training coverage among clinical pharmacists with different demographic characteristics and training experiences. Results: A total of 704 valid questionnaires were included in the statistical analysis. Overall, pharmacists reported high training coverage in clinical pharmacy (97.30%), prescription review (94.60%) and pharmaceutical care (94.18%), whereas training coverage in molecular biology and genomics (53.27%) remained relatively limited. Subgroup analyses indicated significant differences in training coverage across multiple knowledge and skill domains by training level (national vs. provincial, p < 0.05), training type (general vs. specialized, p < 0.05), and certification status (p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study provided the first nationwide characterization of self-reported training coverage among clinical pharmacists in secondary and tertiary hospitals in China across different knowledge and skill domains. The findings provide baseline evidence on the distribution and characteristics of clinical pharmacist training coverage, identify knowledge and skill domains with relatively lower training coverage such as molecular biology and genomics, and inform future optimization of training curricula and training pathways.