Advanced Specialist Pharmacist – Governance and Medicines Safety

Job overview

Following significant investment by the Trust board as part of a 5-year workforce plan, we are able to offer two advanced specialist pharmacists posts to join an expanding pharmacy governance and medicines safety team.

Are you an enthusiastic, motivated, and dynamic experienced clinical pharmacist with an interest in Governance and Medication Safety?

Would you like to work closely with the Trust’s Medicines Safety Officer to promote and share best practice and quality improvement for the safe use of medicines across the Trust in line with local and national objectives.

Are you at the stage of your career where you are looking to develop your clinical leadership management skills and work as part of the pharmacy governance and medicines safety team alongside having the opportunity to provide a high-quality patient focused clinical pharmacy service for patients within a defined clinical speciality?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

Depending on the stage of your career, a diploma, or independent prescribing qualification will be funded. Practice research is also encouraged, and we currently Academic intern pharmacists.

***Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as ‘Priority’ and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.***

• This post holder will be responsible for promoting the safe use of medicines across the Trust whilst there will also be scope to provide a high-quality patient focused clinical pharmacy service for patients within a defined clinical speciality .
• To work with the Lead Pharmacist Governance and Medicines Safety , to improve governance and medication safety throughout UHP, acting as an expert in medicines administration and related error management as part of the pharmacy governance and medicines safety team
• To support the development, implementation and audit of the Trust-wide Medicines Policies in consultation with senior medical, nursing and other healthcare professionals to ensure the safe and effective handling, storage, prescribing and administration of medicines in the Trust.
• Support the Lead Pharmacist Governance and Medicines Safety in the management of medication incident reporting both in pharmacy and the wider organisation
• Investigate medication incidents, and work to improve the reporting and learning from these incidents.
• Be involved in quality improvement projects which aim to make medicine use safer and reduce medicine-related adverse events.
• Work as a clinical pharmacist if appropriate providing a service to a defined cohort of patients alongside, helping to ensure the safety and efficacy of medication use.

Please view the Job Description for the full list of duties.

Working for our organisation

Our specialist cancer treatments include bone marrow transplant, sarcoma surgery and hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancer surgery (not exhaustive). We work closely with our community partners in delivering comprehensive health and social care including general practice, care homes, mental health, neurological rehabilitation, and general medicine.

In Plymouth we are undergoing an exciting transformation which is seeing the continuous development of career opportunities for the right candidate. As one of seven NHS Trusts nationally to be hosting the ‘People First’ pilot our team are continuously identifying innovative ways to improve their own practice and in doing so improving our patient’s experience.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Dimensions:

• Work alongside the Lead Pharmacist Governance and Medicines Safety and the pharmacy governance and medicines safety team to oversee the reporting of medication incidents through the Trust’s incident reporting.
• Use incident reports, clinical audits, local intelligence gathering, and other sources to identify trends, themes, and topics in the medication safety that occur in the organisation in line with the national safety strategy.
• Support the Lead Pharmacist Governance and Medicines Safety to identify national medicines safety issues and how these relate to UHP.
• Support with the review of Clinical Guidelines, Patient Group Directions, Standard Operating Procedures and risk assessments, engaging authors and specialist pharmacists to ensure all documents meet the required standards.
• Support the Lead Pharmacist Governance and Medicines Safety to ensure the outsourced pharmacy service is compliant with governance processes and standards (local and national).
• Take part in multidisciplinary Medicines Management walk arounds, acting as an expert for Pharmacy and medicines governance and safety.
• Support the Lead Pharmacist for Governance and Medicines Safety and assist with the in-depth investigation of specific medicines incidents as requested by senior pharmacy or medical colleagues or the Trust Serious Incident Review

Please see attached JD for a full job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Pharmacy.
• Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Certificate.
• Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Diploma.
• Non-medical prescriber (or must be willing to undertake this when requested).

• Current registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
• Member of the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA).
• An active member of clinical group within UKCPA or equivalent pharmacist specialist interest group.

Knowledge & Experience

• Excellent proven knowledge of clinical pharmacy and drug use.
• Demonstrable experience in a range of clinical specialties.
• Excellent proven knowledge of general clinical pharmacy and drug use.

• Demonstrable experience in patient safety issues and clinical governance.
• To know the current external drivers for the patient and medication safety agendas in the NHS.

Aptitude & Abilities

• Good communication skills, written and verbal, with the ability to demonstrate fluency, clarity, and effectiveness at all levels.
• Time management skills.
• Organisational skills.

• Demonstrate potential management ability.
• Proven knowledge and understanding of medicine safety and patient safety agendas.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY INCLUDING YOUR JUNK FOLDER.

If you need support with the online application process or require reasonable adjustments with the application and/or interview process please contact the Recruiting Manager for this post.

We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants about less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. We recommend contacting the manager of the role prior to applying and we commit to giving requests full consideration.

We welcome and encourage applicants who identify with all protected characteristics to apply for our roles. We believe that diversity strengthens our teams and improves our patients' experience. At UHP we aim to create an inclusive workplace and hospital where everyone feels they belong and included.

It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.

Providing false information is an offence & could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal/police action if an applicant is successful.

This is an automated process & the information will only be used for these purposes prior to your taking up the position with us.

For Doctors Roles:

Unsolicited CVs and Candidate Profiles/Details

University Hospitals Plymouth has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies.

We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred HTE Framework suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles.

In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Medical Workforce team.

We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any other means than the official route above. Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.

Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.

Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further and will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol.

In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to and thank you for your co-operation.