Cancer Services Pharmacy Technician
Job overview
The Pharmacy Department is a forward thinking and progressive department seeking to expand our current team as we develop a patient focused, modern hospital pharmacy service to the Trust. We have an active technician training programme and a proven track record in staff development.
We are looking to recruit a self- motivated and enthusiastic technician who has great initiative and flair. The successful applicant will need to be committed to self- development, have strong attention to detail with excellent dispensary and organisational skills who is able to work to tight timescales.Your support is vital to the continuing expansions of our patient focused pharmacy services.
Main duties of the job
The work is varied and will include:
- Dispensing chemotherapy supportive medicine
- Final accuracy checking on prescriptions if required
- Responsibility of a designated area e.g. oral chemotherapy medicines
- Counselling patients on their medication
- To be a registered Pharmacy Technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council or a Pre-Registration Student eligible for registration this year.
Working for our organisation
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust provides NHS hospital services for around 900,000 people across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.
As well as delivering excellent general hospital services to local people, we provide specialist heart attack, vascular, stroke, spinal, cystic fibrosis and plastic surgery services across a much wider area.
We have three main hospitals - Frimley Park in Frimley near Camberley, Heatherwood in Ascot and Wexham Park near Slough.
Our three core values, and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future.
We are also proud to host the Defence Medical Group South East at Frimley Park with military surgical, medical and nursing personnel working alongside the hospital's NHS staff providing care to patients in all specialties
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Dispensing- To contribute in the provision of a high quality dispensing service.
- To accurately label and dispense prescriptions according to departmental procedure to provide a safe, accurate and timely service. This will involve duties in various areas, i.e.
- Out patients including dispensing chemotherapy prescriptions and counselling of patients
- Chemotherapy supportive medicines– receipt of orders, maintain patient records and dispensing.
- Outside Units – dispensing medication to wards and departments outside the hospital e.g psychiatric units, hospices.
- To identify, calculate and dispense intravenous prescriptions.
- To be competent in all areas of the dispensary relating to chemotherapy supportive medicines and to demonstrate ability and self-development.
- To assist in Pharmacy stores/Ward Services, receipting of chemotherapy supportive medicines.
- Expire stock according to department policies and to assist with the ordering and receipt of pharmaceuticals as a support to pharmacy assistants and clerical staff.
- Take on an area of responsibility to ensure the area is kept clean and tidy, procedures are up to date and maintained to a high standard, e.g. oral chemotherapy
- Participate in the sale of OTC preparations to staff and members of the public as required, under the supervision of a registered pharmacist.
- To participate in audit and quality monitoring groups both inside and outside the department as required.
- To undertake any necessary duties according to the needs of the department.
- To act as an Accredited Checking Technician (ACT) and carry out final checks on clinically validated prescriptions.
- Upon completion of the required workbooks and training you will have the opportunity to progress onto becoming a Senior Pharmacy Technician.
- As a Senior Pharmacy Technician, you will be expected to take on additional responsibilities, some of which include the following (the list is not exhaustive):
- To act as an Accredited Checking Technician and carry out final checks on clinically validated prescriptions.
- To be actively involved in recruitment and selection.
- To support pharmacy procurement in the absence of the procurement lead and staff.
- To support aseptics services relating to chemotherapy discharges and ad hoc tasks.
- Undertake mandatory training of EPIC (Electronic Patient Record) and take personal responsibility for the accurate and timely input of information onto this computer system on the wards and in dispensary (as per the role requirement) to ensure the maintenance of a reliable database, labelling and dispensing of various medication orders and prescription types and for accurate stock control.
- To assist with the routine verification of stock levels to ensure accuracy and reliability of database information
- To participate in the procurement of chemotherapy medicines using the pharmacy computer system (Wellsky).
- Participate in training and development activities as are considered appropriate by the Pharmacy Operational Lead to keep up to date with advances in the service.
- To assist the Education & Training Technician in Dispensary Training – to act as a Practice Supervisor, train students and new members of staff to a competent level in the rotational areas of the dispensary and act as a mentor.
- To maintain personal development and CPD (Continuing Professional Development) portfolio.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Registered as a Pharmacy technician with GPHC
- Recognised ACT qualification
- Knowledge of Aria/ chemo
- Medicines Management Accreditation
Specific Competencies for Role
Essential criteria- Clear Communication
- Attention to Detail
- Computer Literate
- Recent Hospital Experience
- Experience of EPIC (EPR)
- Experience of Training and supervising people
Professsional Experience
Essential criteria- Ability to work within set procedures
- Customer care
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (FHFT) has an outstanding reputation and a proud record of achievement. As a well performing, well led and ambitious Foundation Trust, we have exciting times ahead of us. We have an ongoing commitment to improving the health and care services for the 900,000 people we serve across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.
We are proud of the ambitions laid out in our strategy, Our Future FHFT, including our vision to be a leader in health & wellbeing, delivering excellence for our communities.
We continue to invest in our services and facilities, including a £10 million upgrade to the hospital maternity unit as well as £49m major new Emergency Assessment Centre on our Wexham Park site. The opening of a brand new £100m state of the art hospital which replaced the existing hospital facility at Heatherwood and are planning to invest further in diagnostics and inpatient capacity at Frimley Park.
We have also made significant investment in our quality improvement and digital programmes to support our vision and we will ensure that we achieve our aim of providing the highest quality healthcare to our patients. Our new EPR – Epic – went live in June and we are already beginning to reap the benefits of this ambitious investment.
Our three core values, and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future.