Substance Misuse Pharmacy Technician
Job overview
Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.
As part of the Kent Prison Healthcare contract awarded to Oxleas NHS trust in 2022, we are able to expand recruitment and are looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Substance Misuse Pharmacy Technician to join our friendly team at HMP Elmely.
Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.
As part of our Substance misuse team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.
Important Sponsorship Information for this post: Due to service budget restrictions we are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.
Main duties of the job- To provide a medicines management service to allocated prison under the care of the Substance misuse clinical team, administer medicines against valid prescriptions to Clinical Substance Misuse offenders
- To work under the direction of senior staff to deliver and constantly strive to improve Substance Misuse care services.
- To provide health care based on the principles of timely, comprehensive assessment and evidence-based practice.
- To reduce or mitigate the effects of unhealthy or high risk behaviours.
- To promote effective links with health and related services in the community to ensure continuity of care as appropriate.
- To implement changes in policies as required
- Provide advice to prisoners and staff about the appropriate use of medicines within scope of knowledge.
Working for our organisation
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies.Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs.We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Tasks and Responsibilities- To be the registered professional to accurately administer the prescribed medications to the Substance Misuse clinical patients on the recovery unit and outlying locations selecting the correct formulation and using accurate measurements with a second checker present.
- To accurately record and keep medication administration records on SystmOne up to date in a timely manner.
- Prescription management – ensuring continuing scripts are available to ensure continuous treatment and contingency prescriptions are kept up to date and liase with the dispensing pharmacy regarding the original prescription archiving.
- Controlled Drug management – Ordering, registers, stock checking, auditing, safe storage and managing those needed for destruction along with the prison pharmacist.
- Stock management of symptomatic and Non-CD medication stock supplies
- Naloxone training to staff or patients
- Develop clinical skills to provide further services and potential case load management.
- Participate in group work jointly with the Psychosocial team.
- To support and inspire colleagues within the service to improve standards and quality and to develop professional practice.
- Implement and evaluate care delivery for offenders with substance misuse needs, as delegated by senior staff.
- Understand partner organizations and work collaboratively to coordinate care.
- Develop areas of special interest in keeping with professional development and individual appraisal plans.
- Monitor offenders prescribed treatments and administer medications as required, in keeping with Medicines Management policies and protocols.
- Engage in supporting offenders to address their own health issues, actively participating in health promotion.
- Promote healthy lifestyles for offenders in line with local and national guidelines or promotions to enable offenders towards recovery and self-care.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
Proof of right to work documentation
Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
Proof of address documentation
Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought [...]
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en).
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria- NVQ level 3 Pharmacy Services plus equivalent experience to degree level.
- Evidence of CPD Registration with GPhC as a pharmacy technician
- RCGP Part 1 accredited or willing to work towards it
Experience
Essential criteria- 2 years’ experience of working in a pharmacy
- Previous prison or mental health pharmacy experience
Skills/Abilities/Knowledge
Essential criteria- Good oral communication skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Good knowledge of working within a set of SOPs
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Ability to use initiative to problem solve
We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.
If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.
We encourage applicants to contact the hiring manager before their interview, if they have any questions about the role or the process. This is a great way to get clarity and prepare effectively for the interview.