PCN Clinical Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation to develop a new model of care which addresses our ambition to deliver person-centred, coordinated care across the district. The Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model is supported by the direction of national policy including the Five Year Forward View and GP Forward View where there is a need to better utilise the role of pharmacy within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital, as well as helping to reduce the demands on general practice.

The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. In this role they will be supported by a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patient in the GP practice (s).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.

The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber.

A further explanation of duties and responsibilities are contained in the attached job description.

Collaborative Working Relationships

• Recognises the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care.
• Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations eg. CCGs).
• Demonstrates ability to work as a member of a team.
• Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.
• Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality.
• Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality.
• Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships.
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.
• Liaises with CCG pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from peer support.
• Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to:

Patients

GP, nurses and other practice staff

Other healthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc.

Locality / GP prescribing lead

Locality managers

Community nurses and other allied health professionals

Community and hospital pharmacy teams

Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Minimum of 2 years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio.
• Have experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
• Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate.
• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct.
• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

NB: it is anticipated level of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the components of the role being carried out, see person specification for details.

Leadership

• Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace.
• Demonstrate understanding of, and contributes to, the workplace vision.
• Engages with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of the role and practices
• Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service.
• Reviews yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
• Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals.
• Promotes diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.

Management

• Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service.
• Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation.
• Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice.
• Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.
• Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management.
• Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.

Education, Training and Development

• Understands and demonstrates the characteristics of a role model to members in the team and/or service.
• Demonstrates understanding of the mentorship process.
• Demonstrates ability to conduct teaching and assessment effectively according to a learning plan with supervision from more experienced colleagues.
• Demonstrates self-development through continuous professional development activity; working alongside senior clinical pharmacist to identifying areas to develop.
• Participates in the delivery of formal education programmes. Optimises opportunities for professional development as provided by MPPN.
• Demonstrates an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keeps up to date with relevant clinical practice.
• Ensures appropriate clinical supervision is in place to support development
• Enrolled into review and appraisal systems within the practice.

Research and Evaluation

• Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature.
• Demonstrates ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice.
• Demonstrates ability to generate evidence suitable for presentations at practice and local level.
• Demonstrates ability to apply research evidence base into working place.
• Demonstrates understanding of principles of research governance.

Health and Safety/Risk Management

• The post-holder must comply at all times with the Practices Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System.
• The post-holder will comply with the Data Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).

Equality and Diversity

The post-holder must co-operate with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment. Co-workers, patients and visitors must be treated equally irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.

Respect for Patient Confidentiality

The post-holder should respect patient confidentiality at all times and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.

Special Working Conditions

• The post-holder is required to travel independently between practice sites (where applicable), and to attend meetings etc. hosted by other agencies.
• The post-holder will have contact with body fluids i.e., wound exudates; urine etc. while in clinical practice.

Job Description Agreement

This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account development within the Practice. All members of staff should be prepared to take on additional duties or relinquish existing duties in order to maintain the efficient running of the Practice.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exemptions) Order 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for disclosure to be made to the Criminal Records Bureau to check for any previous criminal convictions. OurNet Health Services is committed to the fair treatment of its staff, potential staff or users.

This job description is intended as a basic guide to the scope and responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive. It will be subject to regular review and amendment as necessary in consultation with the post holder.

*This package includes a standard NEST pension scheme auto-enrollment.

** This advert may close early if suitable candidates are found.

*** Salary is a band 6 to 7 of the NHS agenda for change and is dependent on experience.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• - Minimum of 5 years post-- qualification experience
• - An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices
• - An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• - Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
• - Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• - Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients)
• - Good IT skills
• - Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• - Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
• - Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines
• - Produce timely and informative reports
• - Work effectively independently and as a team member
• - Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision

Desirable

• - In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence--based healthcare.
• - Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• - Gain acceptance for Recommendations and influence/motivate/ persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers

Qualifications

Essential

• - Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)

Desirable

• - Specialist knowledge acquired through post- graduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
• - Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining an independent prescribing qualification

Other

Essential

• - Self-Motivation
• - Adaptable
• - In date CRB
• - Safeguarding adult and children level three
• - Immunisation status
• - Basic life support training

Desirable

• - Full Driving Licence
• - Information Governance toolkit completion

Professional Registration

Essential

• - Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Desirable

• - Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• - A member of, or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Walsall Primary Care Network

Address

29 The Pinfold

Walsall

WS3 3JP

Employer's website

http://www.walsallpcn.net/ (Opens in a new tab)