PCN Residential Care/Nursing Home and GP Practice Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

As a Residential Care/Nursing Home Pharmacist for the PCN, you will be the lead specialist responsible for the medication and structured medicines review for residential and nursing home residents and other high-risk patients. This role is for 30 hours. The postholder will facilitate regular MDTs in Residential/Nursing Homes, liaising with Residential & Nursing Homes, GP Practices, Community Pharmacies, Community Service Providers, Mental Health Service Providers, Secondary Care, and other stakeholders on a regular basis. You will be responsible for contributing to high quality prescribing across the PCN. You will contribute to the review of other high risk patient groups e.g., vulnerable patients residing in their own home.

As a GP Practice Pharmacist for 7.5 hours you will be based at Conway Road Medical Practice. You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team within the practice providing advice, treatment and administrative support alongside a wider team of healthcare professionals. You will provide clinical leadership for medicines optimisation, undertaking clinical medical reviews whilst supporting and advising patients with chronic disease management issues. This includes helping manage long-term conditions and advise those taking multiple medicines (poly-pharmacy). You will also assist with communication across a patient's care pathway and manage medicines shortages by suggesting alternatives where appropriate.

Key duties and responsibilities as a Residential Care/Nursing Home Pharmacist for the PCN

The post holder will be responsible for leading the delivery of structured medication reviews and scheduling of regular MDTs in residential/nursing homes and to other high risk patients requiring review, liaising with all relevant stakeholders to:

Ensure that residents in residential and nursing homes, and their own home (as required) have a thorough medication review to

• ensure all prescribing is evidence-based and cost effective.
• discontinue inappropriate items.
• alter doses where necessary.
• initiate medication if required using prescribing qualification where clinically appropriate.
• ensure all appropriate monitoring is carried out.
• ensure appropriate referral to other services.

Provide a highly specialised medication review which will contribute to improved management of dementia, reduced falls, prevention of acute kidney injury and support a reduction in the appropriate prescribing of antibiotics.

Work with residential/nursing home staff to ensure the safer use of medication providing education and training where necessary.

Handle, order, ensure the safe storage and monitor the cost-effectiveness of prescription medicines and minimise wastage.

Schedule residential/nursing home visits to include a review of any issues with new admissions or patients returning from hospital, follow up MDT work and undertake general housekeeping work - i.e. removing items no longer needed, ensuring directions are clear, synchronising meds, adding and ordering meds, dealing with errors, minimising waste etc.

Manage queries regarding covert administration, which may involve comprehensive medication review, best interest decisions with relatives and completion of necessary paperwork.

Lead the review within residential and nursing homes of the ordering systems for medication to ensure they are robust and minimise wastage.

Lead the implementation and development of pathways, guidelines, etc.

Undertake risk management and ensuring compliance with medicines legislation on residential/nursing homes.

Key duties and responsibilities as a GP Practice Pharmacist

Providing clinical expertise and being an educational resource for colleagues in relation to medicines e.g. doses, side-effects, alternatives etc. whilst helping ton address the public health and social needs of patients within NICE and other evidence-based guidelines.

Liaising with and proactively developing relationships with a multi-disciplinary team (including colleagues, NHS professionals and private organisations) and acting as a main point of contact for medicines.

Managing, auditing and reviewing prescription and repeat prescription policies to improve the quality, safety and cost effectiveness of prescribing.

Reduce wasteful polypharmacy and seek to reduce inappropriate and wasteful prescribing of medicines.

Proactively seek ton reduce medicine-related hospital admissions and readmissions by identifying medicine related issues and supporting patients to get the best outcomes out of their medicines.

Handling patients and healthcare professionals' prescription queries and providing remote support where needed.

Research and identify patients that require medication reviews including patient's clinical condition, blood monitoring and care arrangements.

Perform regular patient reviews to identify and address any medicines-related issues and ensure patients get the best outcome from medicines prescribed.

Make appropriate recommendations to GP and other healthcare professionals for patients' ongoing treatment and for the management of referrals.

Ensuring repeat authorisation processes are adhered to for the high-risk medicines.

Knowledge

Essential

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• Understanding of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Understanding of Confidentiality and Data Protection Act

Desirable

• Knowledge of prescribing information including ePACT data and the EMIS EPR system
• Experience of Primary Care settings
• Experience of Familiar with the nature of Residential and Nursing Homes care settings

Competencies

Essential

• Clear communicator with excellent writing, data entry and presentation skills, capable of constructing and delivering clear information and instructions to staff and service users, capable of communicating highly complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences e.g. patients and capable of producing timely and informative reports
• Ability to work under pressure in a busy working environment and able to multi-task
• Good interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills. Capable of gaining acceptance for recommendations and influencing/motivating/persuading the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there can be significant barriers
• Ability to work with/analyse and interpret highly complex data with the ability to flex and re-prioritise as required to meet deadlines
• Ability to problem solve and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
• Standard keyboard skills with experience in using word, excel, email and power point for publications, presentations and processing documents

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Master's degree in pharmacy, MPharm
• Clinical Diploma or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Independent prescriber
• Completed CPPE Primary Care Pharmacist Education Pathway

Experience

Essential

• Significant post-qualification experience

Desirable

• Experience of analysing ePACT data
• Experience of working in a residential or nursing homes and conducting SMRs

Other

Essential

• Committed to continued professional development
• Ability to work effectively independently and as a team member
• Able to work on own initiative, organising and prioritising own and other workloads with minimal supervision to changing and often tight deadlines
• Must be able to use initiative to decide relevant actions and make recommendations to multiple audiences with the aim of improving deliverables and compliance with policies
• Accountable for own professional actions

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).