HealthJobsUK

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To support Antimicrobial Stewardship Agenda within the trust on:

QUALITY - Reduction in HCAI, through reduced use of drugs which

predispose to C diff etc

COST - Economy in the use of antimicrobials, through best practice

prescribing

RISK - Avoidance of clinical complications

GOVERNANCE - Compliance with standards

• To provide specialist clinical pharmacy support to a specialities on complex pharmaceutical

• To manage pharmacist within specialities and to support their development.

• To support the development of the medicine management technician to

utilise theirs skills within the provision of the clinical pharmacy service.

CRITICAL ACTIVITIES:

Key working relationships

• Head of Pharmacy
•  Deputy Head of Pharmacy and Medicine Safety Officer
•  Principal Clinical Service Manager
•  Principal Pharmacist for Infection.
  • Other Pharmacy staff in the Trust
  • Microbiologists, the Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC), & the Infection Control team
  • Consultant medical staff and teams
  • Trust governance lead
  • Senior Nursing staff and other senior healthcare professionals
  • Counterparts in other Trusts and in the Community, through Networks and
  on line fora
  • CSU medicines management team and commissioners

Clinical Pharmacy
The post-holder will be part of a team providing a clinical pharmacy service to the Trust and will be responsible for: 

Antimicrobial Stewardship

• To work with Trust Antimicrobial Stewardship Group to develop strategies for the trust to meet National Antimicrobial Stewardship directives

• Attend trust level meetings including Infection Prevention Board, seasonal flu planning meetings

• To design and deliver packages of pharmaceutical care to individual
patients. Notably this includes in depth clinical reviews of choice and use
of antimicrobials

• Challenge prescribing practice outside of antimicrobial guidelines

• Monitoring of the development of anti-infectives resistance in the locality

• Support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and protocols relating to anti-infective agents including IV to oral
switches, automatic review dates, renal dosing, allergy recording,
therapeutic drug monitoring TDM

• Maintains professional networks to give SWFT the benefit of learning
elsewhere

• Advises and supports on the use of anti-infectives – hand washing, surface sanitization

• Teaching of Pharmacy, medical and nursing staff to raise awareness and
improve practice

• Attendance at antimicrobials round, C.difficile round, Antimicrobials
Stewardship Team meetings

• Uses the Pharmacy IT system, EPMA and other data sources to research
anti-infectives use and identify opportunities to improve practice and / or
document evidence based care.

• Participation in Microbiology review of Antibiotic guidelines for community use and for acute use

Medicine Specialities 

• To work with medical specialities to develop new strategies with the
directorates.

• Providing an excellent standard of Clinical Pharmacy service to a speciality on the wards, virtual wards, community and outpatient

• To provide a high level of pharmaceutical support, advice and information, to medical, nursing and other healthcare staff providing clinical care in specialty

General Clinical Service

• To liaise with hospital colleagues and contribute to the provision of clinical pharmacy services at SWFT.

• To advise on / recommend / adapt clinical treatment guidelines that have
been produced locally or by national bodies e.g. NICE, NSFs, National
Prescribing Centre, for use in the specialty area

• To contribute to directorate work for all medical specialities

• To be a lead pharmacist in advising the Principal Pharmacist, and the Head of Pharmacy, on the strategic development of clinical pharmacy services to the designated specialist services.

• Work with the ward based and dispensary pharmacy teams in the
development of and maintenance of the Trust’s pharmacy services.

• To ensure that safe systems of handling medicines are in place and that
national guidelines and local protocols relating to medicines management
are adhered to.

• To advise medical, nursing, other professional staff, managers and patients on any aspect of drug therapy or drug control as required or when
considered necessary.

• To maintain an awareness of current developments in pharmacy practice
pertinent to the services, by liaising with relevant bodies, outside agencies,
special interest groups and other pharmacists. To inform and advise senior
pharmacy staff as appropriate.

Governance

• To work directly with the medicine Safety officer and principle pharmacist in addressing the pharmacy and medicines management governance agenda within the Trust relevant to their designated specialty

• To represent Pharmacy on the Audit and Operational Governance group of the relevant division, in the postholder’s own right, or as alternate.

• To undertake the reporting of medication incidents when necessary,
according to the Trust’s Incident Reporting Policy, to assist other pharmacists in reporting, to investigate medication incidents as necessary, to provide senior pharmacist input to incident report forms and root cause analyses, and to recommend improvements and implement agreed actions.

• To contribute to duties as a clinical pharmacist to other wards in the Trust
when necessary.

• To liaise with the Senior Pharmacists for the allocation of staff, notably to
negotiate staffing resource to provide cover of the specialist services in the
postholder’s absence.

• Supporting the assessment of medicines management competencies.

• To deputize for senior pharmacy managers as required.

• As a registered practising Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical
Council, the post-holder must undertake Continuing Professional
Development CPD and meet the mandatory requirements

• Participation in Root Cause Analyses when incidents occur which involve
anti-infectives.

Operational Pharmacy

• To participate in the provision of the total pharmaceutical service, including a contribution to dispensary rotas on weekdays, late duties, and public holidays. The department provides a 7 day pharmacy service and the post holder will be expected to work weekends on a regular basis

• To participate in on call service depending on service needs

• To undertake routine duties within the dispensary as required, including
supervising the work of junior pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and
(senior) ATOs.

• To assure the standards of pharmaceutical care provided to patients on
designated wards, ensuring that a satisfactory level of pharmacy service is
provided within the resources available.

Education and Training

• The post holder will support the pharmacy department’s aspirations in
achieving and maintaining the highest possible standards of clinical
pharmacy excellence.

• If agreed, to act as a Pre-Registration Pharmacist tutor, or as a clinical
coordinator for a post-graduate diploma student.

• To provide clinical education and training to medical, nursing and pharmacy staff, both undergraduate and postgraduate, including tutoring and mentoring.

• To supervise, contribute to and undertake research and audit projects in
the specialty areas, particularly those concerned with the clinical and cost
effective use of drugs, compliance with safer prescribing and drug
administration policies, procedures and guidelines, and implementation of
pharmacy service developments. To provide reports and present the audit
findings within the Trust or to outside organizations or regional or national
meetings where appropriate. Notably this will include point prevalence
studies of antimicrobials use and of adherence to antibiotics guidelines for
the locality, and the benchmarking of antimicrobials use against other
Trusts and localities.

• To support the Education and Training Lead Pharmacist to develop and
maintain a training Programme for clinical pharmacists allocated to the
specialty, and to develop and administer a competency assessment
process to ensure the appropriate standards are achieved. To provide
clinical pharmacy training for undergraduate pharmacy students, post-grad. diploma students, vacation students, pre-registration pharmacists (hospital and community-based) and hospital clinical pharmacists

Research

• The post holder may undertake practice research and will support research and audit by students and others within the department

• Locality, Regional, and National benchmarking of anti-infectives use in the Trust, comparing with secondary care peers, and with primary care

General Responsibilities

• At all times to comply with all policies of the Pharmacy Department and of the Trust to ensure the maintenance of professional standards and
compliance with legal requirements.

• At all times to maintain safe standards of work and a safe and appropriate
environment as required by the provisions of the Medicines Act, the Health
and Safety at Work Act, COSHH and waste disposal regulations. Any other
requirements as may from time to time be placed upon the department
including those of the MHRA.

• To carry out any task appropriate to the post-holder’s training, experience and expertise, as may be required by the Head of Pharmacy

• The following responsibilities relate to general support of the Head of
Pharmacy, the Pharmacy department and the Trust. They are not
responsibilities specific to the post-holder but areas in which, as a member
of the department, the post-holder will be expected to make an input.

Pharmacy Strategy

• To suggest and support continuing service developments for inclusion
within the Business Plan of the Pharmacy Department.

• To maintain an awareness of current developments in pharmacy practice
pertinent to the services, by liaising with relevant bodies, outside agencies,
special interest groups and other pharmacists. To inform and advise senior
pharmacy staff as appropriate future Strategies.