Job responsibilities
Duties and
Responsibilities
Communication and Working Relationship Skills
Communicate highly complex
drug or medicines related information in an understandable format to people
who use our services so that they can make informed contributions to treatment
decisions and are able to use their medication safely and effectively. This
information may be provided through face to face conversations, via a central
medicines information telephone service, via tailored patient information
leaflets or as face to face or group presentations for service users and
carer groups. It may involve tactfully conveying sensitive or contentious
information to people with mental health issues or learning disabilities,
including those with challenging behavioural issues.
Communicate highly
complex information about medicines to prescribers and other health care professionals.
This will involve attending multi-disciplinary team meetings, delivering presentations,
answering queries via a central medicines helpline telephone service and
providing written guidance and briefings. It will sometimes involve
challenging the decisions already made by the MDT.
Document medication
reviews and drug histories accurately and concisely to support care planning
for individual patients
Document all
interventions you make in a persons care in their electronic patient record
and highlight these interventions to prescribers via phone or email if
necessary
Document information
provided through the Medicines Helpline service according to the relevant
procedure.
Maintain and develop
communication links with local Trusts and Commissioners to improve systems
and processes within the Trust.
Maintain and develop communication links with
other Mental Health Trusts and special interest groups by participating in
benchmarking exercises, meetings and participating in the College of Mental Health Pharmacists Forum
Analytical and Judgemental Skills
Review prescriptions
for appropriateness in light of indication, individual presentation and
concomitant medical conditions paying particular attention to specialist,
complex regimens. Provide advice on treatment choices, dosages, legality of
prescriptions e.g. in relation to the mental health act.
Ensure all complex
medication regimes are evidence-based and challenge prescribers when
prescribing is outside current guidelines/best practice
Advise prescribers on
next steps to take when treating individuals with treatment-resistant
presentations
Discuss medication
regimes with individuals paying particular attention to their understanding
of their medicines and using language/leaflets appropriate to the
individuals level of understanding
Work with the data analyst to analyse local prescribing
data to highlight any practice that needs investigating and act accordingly.
Planning and Organisational Skills
You will work independently to provide advice and support
to the learning disability service and to The Brook inpatient services you
will need to plan and organise your work commitments to balance the requirements
of this alongside the requirements of the wider MO team e.g. central medicines helpline phone service,
development of procedures, carrying out audits, attending governance meetings
Ensure that all staff in The Brook and wider
learning disability service, know how to contact you and who to contact in
your absence for advice
Prioritise actions to
ensure that relevant medicines optimisation performance KPIs are met
Be responsible for
own professional development by maintaining GPhC Continuing Professional
Development records to professional standards supporting revalidation, and actively
progressing DPT Personal Development Plans
Responsibility for
Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy
Provide a highly
specialist, clinical pharmacy service to The Brook, the wider learning
disability service and primary care by;
o
Identifying and minimising risks associated with the use
of medicines.
o
Contributing to medication care plans and working as an integral member of the
multi-professional team
o
Reviewing medication charts and prescription records to
ensure that each prescription is appropriate for that person, legal, legible,
safe and effective.
o
Identifying drug interactions and adverse effects and
addressing issues as appropriate.
o
Advising on the monitoring of medication regarding
efficacy, safety and side effects and interpreting physical health monitoring
and blood test results.
o
Undertaking medication reviews and drug history reports
as required
o
Ensuring that all your interventions are documented in the
electronic patient record and communicated according to Trust and/or PCN policy.
o
Educating people who use our services and their carers
about medication.
o
Developing, implementing and supporting schemes which
promote medicines adherence
o
Promoting seamless care by liaising with GPs, nurses,
other specialties and community pharmacists to ensure clear treatment plans,
safe and effective prescribing, continued prescribing/ supply arrangements,
support with medicines adherence and medicines reconciliation.
o
Providing a medicines information service for community
staff (LD, Autism, CMHT and PCN)
o
Supporting PCNs with safe practice (e.g. through SOPs)
for managing mental health medicines (e.g. depots, clozapine)
Once qualified,
practice as an independent pharmacist prescriber to provide timely access to treatment
in accordance with Trust non-medical prescribing policies
Responsibility for Policy and Service
Development Implementation
Recommends and contributes
towards the development, implementation and review of medicines-related policies,
clinical protocols, standard operating procedures, prescribing guidelines,
practice standards and safety briefings.
Ensure adherence to
the standards of the Medicines Policy and other MO documentation and report
any deviations to unit managers and Deputy Chief Pharmacists and report via the
Trust Risk Management System where appropriate.
Review all medicines incidents reported via
the Trust Risk Management System for your locality each month and contribute
to incident reviews and root cause analyses where necessary. Exercise vigilance in the timely
identification of risks relating to any aspect of medicine usage.
Attend governance
meetings (locality meetings and the MOSG) to ensure that risk areas related
to medicines are addressed and implement changes to practice where necessary
The
post holder will support the Trust Medicines Safety Officer in their roles
and ensure that specific medicines safety considerations are identified and
addressed through the employing organisations medicine safety structure.
Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and
Other Resources
Responsible for
ensuring medicines are stored and used in accordance with trust medicines
policy.
Assist the Medicines Optimisation
Prescribing Analyst with the provision of timely and accessible prescribing
reports detailing clinical and financial medicines information for clinicians
and Trust managers.
Advise on measures to
improve cost effectiveness within your locality and contribute to Medicines Optimisation
cost-improvement initiatives where relevant
Provide support to Deputy
Chief Pharmacists to present and interpret budgetary information to locality
teams to ensure that significant trends and variances are highlighted
together with proposals for remedial action
Promote cost
effective prescribing at an individual level by pointing out cost
implications of prescribing decisions at MDTs and ensuring that their own
prescribing practice meets these same standards
Responsibility for
Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management
They will be managed
by the Deputy Chief Pharmacist Clinical Services, but will also report to
the Deputy Chief Pharmacist Medicines Safety and Governance, the
accountable officer for controlled drugs and the PCN lead for some of their
wider team tasks
They will deputise
for the Deputy Chief Pharmacist where appropriate and attend locality
meetings to ensure pharmaceutical issues are considered.
They will provide
line management for technicians (when delegated by Chief Pharmacy Technician)
and pharmacists working within their workstream
They will provide
clinical supervision for technicians and pharmacists working within their
workstream
They will be expected
to work autonomously with access to support when required.
They will delegate
tasks to pharmacists, MO technicians,
link practitioners and ward staff as appropriate, providing assistance to the
technicians where required.
They will assist in
the development, delivery and audit of medicines related education and
training programmes for healthcare staff,
including inductions for new staff
They will help supervise
technicians, pre-registration and diploma pharmacists from acute trust
hospitals who come to DPT for experience of working in mental health.
