Specialist Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Provision of Cancer and Aseptic Services:

Under the management of the Lead Specialist Pharmacist (Aseptic Services), the post-holder will be responsible for:

Substantiating clinical pharmacy recommendations in cancer patients at the highest level and against challenge from prescribers.

Providing specialist clinical advice to other health care professionals on all pharmaceutical issues arising within the specialist area of cancer services. This will include the extrapolation of clinical and complex medicines information where data may be lacking and analysing, interpreting and comparing differing opinion or facts to determine the best prescribing strategy for an individual patient or patient group.

Providing a specialist aseptic pharmacy service to Haematology and Oncology patients and ensuring the chemotherapy regimens prescribed for patients by haematologists and oncologists are safe and appropriate for administration to individual patients.

Ensuring adherence to NHS England standard operating procedures in relation to drugs supply through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), NICE and other commissioning arrangements.

Management of specific supply pathways to include EAMS and compassionate use schemes.

Ensuring individual patients entered into clinical trials are treated according to the trial protocol.

Assisting with the creation of clinical guidelines relating to all areas of medicines use within cancer services.

Ensuring adherence to the Trust Formulary, unlicensed medicines policy and high cost drug procedures.

Helping to provide a cost effective and quality assured aseptic manufacturing service that is risk managed and meets the clinical and business strategies of the Trust.

Undertake pharmaceutical risk management for the aseptic services provided and ensure medicines legislation is complied with in those areas.

Updating and implementing quality management systems within the aseptic unit including change control, document control and product assessments.

Working towards implementation of action points raised from audits.

Assisting in undertaking and development of, the systems supporting the validation of all aspects of the aseptic services.

Helping to ensure on an on-going basis that all Pharmacy Aseptics SOPs comply with:- Current medicines legislation, national guidelines including the Guideline for Administration of Intrathecal Cytotoxic Medicines, professional and Trust standards for aseptic service delivery, current Good Manufacturing Practice Guidelines, COSHH, and health and safety legislation.

Contributing towards the pharmacy service development plan for trust cancer services.

Assisting in the delivery of key pharmacy modernisation initiatives within the area of cancer services and assisting in the assessment of the impact of such service development initiatives on medical and nursing staff within the post-holders area and the pharmacy department as a whole.

Provision of Specialist Clinical Services

Under the management of the Clinical Team Lead for Cancer Services and Advance practice the post-holder will be responsible for:

Provide a specialist clinical pharmacy and medicines management service to patients and undertake pharmaceutical risk management for the Haematology/oncology beds.

Ensure compliance with medicines legislation, the Trust Medicines Policy, and medicines related national and local guidelines within Haematology/oncology beds.

Contribute to producing and implement appropriate technical and professional SOPs and associated policies to ensure that the Haematology/oncology medicines management systems are safe, robust, guided by national directives, standards, guidelines, and the post-holders own specialist knowledge, and are quality assured.

Evaluate prescribing practices and amend according to evidence-based practice, national/regional directives and clinical governance targets on a daily basis.

Substantiate pharmaceutical recommendations and advice to medical and nursing staff and communicate effectively any necessary actions to medical and nursing staff.

Construct pharmaceutical care plans for patients, assess and monitor clinical progress and outcome with regard to their medication and actively intervene to ensure that patients receive optimal care with minimal side effects.

Be responsible for the therapeutic blood monitoring of identified drugs within the post-holders clinical area.

Medication History Taking, Provision of Patient Information and Counselling

Ensure that information and patient counselling systems are implemented within their specialist area according to patient need to ensure that patients obtain the most benefit from their medicines.

Contribute to setting standards for, and manage the counseling of patients on their medicines to improve concordance and knowledge of their therapy.

Ensure all newly admitted patients are interviewed to construct an accurate medication history and assess compliance/concordance issues.

Review information against the admission details and prescription chart.

Pro-actively identify to medical staff any potential or actual medicines-related hospital admissions or associated issues and outline any required action to resolve identified discrepancies.

Assess patients discharge information requirements as early as possible in the admission stay to be able to prepare information on medicines for them based on individual need.

Counsel patients with complex needs such as a physical disability which may affect information requirements (sight or hearing), language difficulties, those with life-threatening or terminal diagnoses and highly distressed patients.

Provision of Specialist Information and Counselling:

The post-holder will ensure that specialist information regarding the preparation, prescribing and administration of medicines prepared by or supplied from the aseptic services is available to Trust staff and patients according to individual request or need. This will include advising medical, nursing and pharmacy staff on commissioning, evidence based medicines usage, safe handling and stability of chemotherapy and associated medicines

Managerial responsibilities

Provide day to day clinical supervision for pharmacists, pre-registration pharmacy graduates, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants.

Provision of Education, Training and CPD

Assisting in the delivery of a training and continual competency assessment programme for pharmacy staff who are required to work within cancer services.

Identify personal training and development required to ensure the quality of the service. This may include undertaking a specialist post-graduate diploma or the Independent prescribing qualification.

Dispensary and other Operational Responsibilities

Providing the clinical pharmacist check on all prescriptions. This will require the scrutiny of prescriptions from medical and other practitioners to ensure they are accurate, appropriate for the patients needs, legal and cost-effective.

Questioning and challenging the prescriptions of all prescribers including Consultants whenever the post holder perceives it to be professionally appropriate and in the best interests of the patient.

Assist in the delivery of the pharmacy departments dispensing and other operational services as required to meet the needs of the service.

Participate in the Dispensary Saturday and Bank Holiday rotas and the departmental on-call rota.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Current experience of successfully delivering NHS pharmacy services as a foundation year trainee pharmacist or a qualified pharmacist under the direction of experienced registered pharmacists.

Desirable

• Current experience of successfully delivering hospital pharmacy services as a foundation year trainee pharmacist or a qualified pharmacist to a range of general and specialist areas under the direction of experienced registered pharmacists.
• Experience of working in a licensed or un-licensed aseptic unit.
• Experience of delivering chemotherapy out patients services.
• Experience of working with an electronic prescribing system.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Skilled at using reference sources, journals, the internet and on-line information sources to find medicines information for health-care professionals.
• Able to follow national protocols and guidelines and Trust policies, procedures and guidelines related to pharmacy including clinical governance and risk management.
• Able to use own professional judgement.
• Skilled in the application of clinical knowledge to optimise patient care/safety, relative to the level expected of a pre-diploma pharmacist.
• Skill for using Microsoft Office to produce word-processed documents e.g. patient care plans, audit reports (MS Word), record research and audit data (MS Excel) and prepare and deliver training (MS Powerpoint).
• Standard key-board skills for using the Pharmacy Computer System, and other software, to prepare reports, analyses, label medicines etc
• Competent to dispense medicines accurately without making errors.
• Competent to check medicines dispensed by others and to detect any errors that have been made.

Desirable

• Knowledge about chemotherapy drugs and regimens in current use.
• Knowledge of clinical issues relating to the treatment of haematology and oncology patients.

Qualifications

Essential

• Professional knowledge acquired through a vocational degree in pharmacy.
• Currently Registered as a pharmacist in UK: Member of the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Currently meeting the GPhC standard for continuing professional development.

Desirable

• Attained or working towards post-graduate level training. E.g. Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy.
• Attained or working towards RPS Newly Qualified Pharmacist Pathway (linked with RPS Post Registration Foundation Curriculum), able to provide evidence across 4 of the domains.

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

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Charles Hastings Way

Worcester

Worcestershire

WR5 1DD

Employer's website

https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)