Pharmacy internships within training hospital departments play a key role in the professional growth of pharmacy students. Yet, the standard of these internships differs greatly among Chinese hospitals, and there is a shortage of tools to systematically evaluate hospital readiness. This study aimed to design a self-assessment instrument to measure how prepared training hospitals are for hosting pharmacy internships. A two-phase exploratory mixed-methods approach was used. In the first phase (2021), focus groups were held with 16 interns from three tertiary hospitals in Henan Province. In 2022, 14 preceptors from tertiary hospitals in multiple provinces participated in individual interviews or focus groups. The data were analyzed thematically to generate potential indicators of internship readiness. These indicators, combined with a literature review, formed the first draft of a self-assessment tool. In the second phase, the Delphi method was employed in 2023. Experts were surveyed in two rounds (21 in round one, 19 in round two) to reach agreement on the final indicators, while also evaluating the current internship readiness of Chinese training hospitals.
Phase one produced five major themes and 22 sub-themes, which were combined with literature-based indicators to create an initial framework containing five domains and 37 items. In phase two, expert feedback achieved response rates of 90.48% and 89.47% for the two rounds. The finalized tool consisted of five dimensions and 35 secondary indicators: (1) organizational structure, (2) training content, (3) training mode, (4) effectiveness evaluation, and (5) emergency management. Expert assessment showed variation in hospital readiness, with emergency management scoring highest, followed by organizational structure and content, while training modes and effectiveness evaluation scored lower. The resulting self-assessment tool offers a comprehensive checklist for pharmacy departments in training hospitals and could support the improvement of internship training programs.
