Job summary
This is an 18-month
secondment/fixed term appointment for up to 0.4 WTE Senior Clinical Research
Pharmacist.
Devon
Partnership Trust in collaboration with The Mood Disorders Centre at University of
Exeter has been selected to be one of centres of excellence around the country
collaborating on the £42m government funded The NIHR Mental Health
Translational Research - Mental Health Mission (MHTRD-MHM).
Mental
Health Missions aim is to increase the volume of mental health research being
conducted in the UK. This will be done by providing systems to support
industry-led and NHS-led research and investment. The MHM will also focus on
the areas of mental illness support that currently have an unmet patient need
or carry a high burden. This includes major depressive disorder, difficult to
treat depression and bipolar disorder.
This
post is to support the new RISE Mood Disorders Research Clinic, which is funded
by the MHTRD-MHM, and will offer a consultant led assessment which is
underpinned by engaging service users in research.
Main duties of the job
This
post is to lead in developing RISE Mood Disorders Research Clinics pharmacy
needs, any SOPs and processes, advise clinical colleagues around medicines and
lead a project to develop a clinical trial dispensing pharmacy here in DPT.
You
will also be expected to support the daily running of the clinic, including
supporting junior research staff, carrying out clinic assessments and giving
pharmacy advice on referrals and assessments. You may also be asked to support
the clinical trials pharmacy at the RDUH in dispensing research drugs for DPT
trials.
You
can get actively involved in commercial and non-commercial research trials and
build your own research skills.
You
will be allocated a line manager and will also be line managed in terms of
professional and clinical supervision by a Senior Pharmacist.
About us
About Devon Partnership Trust
We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.
We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do
Our values
We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.
We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Working Relationships:
- Key working relationships will include:
- People who use our services, relatives and
carers and their groups
- DPT MO team and medicines optimisation link
practitioners
- DPT multi-disciplinary community teams (CMHT
and Rehabilitation) including Consultant psychiatrists, other DPT medical and
non-medical prescribers, nursing staff, occupational therapists, social workers
and psychologists
- PCN GPs, pharmacy staff and other primary care
staff
- Other specialist Mental Health and Learning
Disability pharmacists through specialist interest groups/ clinical supervision
network.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment
and Therapy
- Provide a highly
specialist, clinical pharmacy service to mental health and rehabilitation
services to include community mental health/ learning disability and primary
care by;
- Identifying and minimising risks associated with the use
of medicines.
- Contributing to medication care plans and working as an integral member of the
multi-professional team
- Reviewing medication charts and prescription records to
ensure that each prescription is appropriate for that person, legal, legible,
safe and effective.
- Identifying drug interactions and adverse effects and
addressing issues as appropriate.
- Advising on the monitoring of medication regarding
efficacy, safety and side effects and interpreting physical health monitoring
and blood test results.
- Undertaking medication reviews and drug history reports
as required
- Ensuring that all your interventions are documented in the
electronic patient record and communicated according to Trust and/or PCN policy.
- Educating people who use our services and their carers
about medication.
- Developing, implementing and supporting schemes which
promote medicines adherence
- 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.
- Providing a medicines information service for community
staff (CMHT and PCN)
- 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
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.
Responsibility
for Information Resources and Administrative Duties
- Contribute to the provision
of a DPT central medicines helpline telephone service to supply public and
staff with answers to their queries during working hours. The use of information, and documentation
of queries, must comply with the departments medicines information
procedures, ensuring that appropriate records are completed and maintained.
- Understand the
importance of confidentiality as you will have access to private patient
information across both primary and secondary care systems. Ensure any
entries made in clinical notes are completed in accordance with the DPT or
PCN standards for record keeping.
- Uphold the principles
of the use of evidence based medicine and make recommendations in line with
the Joint Formulary, DPT prescribing guidelines and other local/ national
guidelines (Including NICE recommendations) and national evidence bases e.g.
Cochrane.
- Provide an advanced
level of clinical reasoning and judgment when advising staff on complex
clinical situations where there are conflicting opinions, where data are
lacking or interpretation of clinical trials data is required. Ensure that in
the absence of available data, decisions made will withstand public scrutiny
and legal challenge.
- Ensure accurate
minutes are taken and recorded for meetings as appropriate and that action
logs are followed up.
Responsibility
for Research and Development
- Regularly undertake research or development activities as a major job
requirement.
- Ensure that all clinical practice is evidence based. Keep up to date
with relevant research in the field in order to evaluate current practice and
implement service improvement using quality improvement methodologies.
- Undertake complex audits using research methodology, including
collation of research results
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.
- Liaise with community
teams and PCN practices to review treatment plans in accordance with best
practice and current guidelines paying particular attention to specialist,
complex regimens. Provide advice on treatment choices, dosages, monitoring
and 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.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Working Relationships:
- Key working relationships will include:
- People who use our services, relatives and
carers and their groups
- DPT MO team and medicines optimisation link
practitioners
- DPT multi-disciplinary community teams (CMHT
and Rehabilitation) including Consultant psychiatrists, other DPT medical and
non-medical prescribers, nursing staff, occupational therapists, social workers
and psychologists
- PCN GPs, pharmacy staff and other primary care
staff
- Other specialist Mental Health and Learning
Disability pharmacists through specialist interest groups/ clinical supervision
network.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment
and Therapy
- Provide a highly
specialist, clinical pharmacy service to mental health and rehabilitation
services to include community mental health/ learning disability and primary
care by;
- Identifying and minimising risks associated with the use
of medicines.
- Contributing to medication care plans and working as an integral member of the
multi-professional team
- Reviewing medication charts and prescription records to
ensure that each prescription is appropriate for that person, legal, legible,
safe and effective.
- Identifying drug interactions and adverse effects and
addressing issues as appropriate.
- Advising on the monitoring of medication regarding
efficacy, safety and side effects and interpreting physical health monitoring
and blood test results.
- Undertaking medication reviews and drug history reports
as required
- Ensuring that all your interventions are documented in the
electronic patient record and communicated according to Trust and/or PCN policy.
- Educating people who use our services and their carers
about medication.
- Developing, implementing and supporting schemes which
promote medicines adherence
- 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.
- Providing a medicines information service for community
staff (CMHT and PCN)
- 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
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.
Responsibility
for Information Resources and Administrative Duties
- Contribute to the provision
of a DPT central medicines helpline telephone service to supply public and
staff with answers to their queries during working hours. The use of information, and documentation
of queries, must comply with the departments medicines information
procedures, ensuring that appropriate records are completed and maintained.
- Understand the
importance of confidentiality as you will have access to private patient
information across both primary and secondary care systems. Ensure any
entries made in clinical notes are completed in accordance with the DPT or
PCN standards for record keeping.
- Uphold the principles
of the use of evidence based medicine and make recommendations in line with
the Joint Formulary, DPT prescribing guidelines and other local/ national
guidelines (Including NICE recommendations) and national evidence bases e.g.
Cochrane.
- Provide an advanced
level of clinical reasoning and judgment when advising staff on complex
clinical situations where there are conflicting opinions, where data are
lacking or interpretation of clinical trials data is required. Ensure that in
the absence of available data, decisions made will withstand public scrutiny
and legal challenge.
- Ensure accurate
minutes are taken and recorded for meetings as appropriate and that action
logs are followed up.
Responsibility
for Research and Development
- Regularly undertake research or development activities as a major job
requirement.
- Ensure that all clinical practice is evidence based. Keep up to date
with relevant research in the field in order to evaluate current practice and
implement service improvement using quality improvement methodologies.
- Undertake complex audits using research methodology, including
collation of research results
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.
- Liaise with community
teams and PCN practices to review treatment plans in accordance with best
practice and current guidelines paying particular attention to specialist,
complex regimens. Provide advice on treatment choices, dosages, monitoring
and 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.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working within a multidisciplinary healthcare team / environment.
- Ability to supervise activities of pharmacy technicians and assistants.
- Managing change in a complex environment and evidence of having successfully implemented change.
- The ability to work under pressure, to deadlines where there are conflicting priorities.
Desirable
- Evidence of involvement in change management and/or clinical service improvement.
- Experience of undertaking clinical audit.
- Experience of delivering training programmes
- Previous involvement in research
Qualifications
Essential
- Current registration as a Pharmacist General Pharmacy Council (GPhC).
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
- Postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy / therapeutics or equivalent clinical experience
- Certificate/Diploma or Masters in Psychiatric Pharmacy practice or equivalent clinical experience
- Independent Prescribing Qualification (or be working towards completion)
Desirable
- Member of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy
- RPS Advanced Practice Framework completed
Project development
Essential
- ability and experience of developing a service improvement project from idea to implementation.
- understanding of the requirements of a clinical trials dispensing pharmacy within a mental health trust
- proven track record of collaborative working and working to a deadline.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working within a multidisciplinary healthcare team / environment.
- Ability to supervise activities of pharmacy technicians and assistants.
- Managing change in a complex environment and evidence of having successfully implemented change.
- The ability to work under pressure, to deadlines where there are conflicting priorities.
Desirable
- Evidence of involvement in change management and/or clinical service improvement.
- Experience of undertaking clinical audit.
- Experience of delivering training programmes
- Previous involvement in research
Qualifications
Essential
- Current registration as a Pharmacist General Pharmacy Council (GPhC).
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
- Postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy / therapeutics or equivalent clinical experience
- Certificate/Diploma or Masters in Psychiatric Pharmacy practice or equivalent clinical experience
- Independent Prescribing Qualification (or be working towards completion)
Desirable
- Member of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy
- RPS Advanced Practice Framework completed
Project development
Essential
- ability and experience of developing a service improvement project from idea to implementation.
- understanding of the requirements of a clinical trials dispensing pharmacy within a mental health trust
- proven track record of collaborative working and working to a deadline.
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).
Additional information
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).
