Pharmacy Technician Specialist

Job overview

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly motivated Specialist Pharmacy Technician to join the domiciliary medicines team within the CPFT pharmacy department.

This role is based in Huntingdon and covers the Huntingdonshire part of the county. You will be working in a team with friendly, dedicated and experienced specialist pharmacy technicians who cover the rest of Cambridgeshire. There will be flexibility for hybrid working and the role may occasionally require you to travel to other bases in the Trust.

This role involves lone working and travelling to visit patients in their own homes, so the successful candidate needs to be able to work independently, as well as being self motivated and confident in talking to patients.

The ideal candidate will have a flexible approach to the needs of the service and have a strong team work ethic. You must be well organised, able to prioritise your own work and have good communication skills. You need a strong sense of accountability, accompanied by the ability to work under pressure at times.

If you are looking for a new challenge, enjoy variety in your work and wish to be part of a team striving to make a difference to our patients then we want to hear from you.

We will support and provide the necessary training required for the role.

Main duties of the job

The purpose of this post is to provide a patient-centred service to support medicines optimisation.

The aim is to improve patient outcomes by optimising the use of medicines by patients in the community. This will improve patient care, reduce medication related problems and avoidable hospital admissions and can also reduce drug costs and waste.

It will require a collaborative approach together with the patient and their family and social network, as well as colleagues in health and social care.

Reaching concordance will involve visiting patients in their own homes, and it will also involve multidisciplinary working.

The post-holder will contribute to the strategic development of support for medicines management in the domiciliary setting in the context of the relationships between the service, the Trust, and other stakeholders.

The responsibilities of this post require significant autonomy and lone working as well as travel across the county. There is also a requirement to be able to handle sensitive and potentially difficult patient issues.

Working for our organisation

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide specialist advice and practical support to patients regarding their medicines, to family members and carers as appropriate, and to other health and social services staff as necessary.
• Explore reasons for non-compliance, both intentional and unintentional, and develop strategies and methods to reach concordance, tailored to the individual.
• Provide specialist advice and practical support to patients regarding their medicines, to family members and carers as appropriate, and to other health and social services staff as necessary.
• Assess, plan, implement and evaluate skilled medicines management interventions for patients across the community/primary care interface, in co-operation with other members of the integrated health and social care teams.
• Complete documentation to record clinical data, recommendations and outcomes.
• Report pharmaceutical errors/ incidents and issues as appropriate using the Trust incident reporting scheme.
• Contribute to the investigation of incidents, including attending safeguarding reviews etc.
• Contribute to overall patient health and social care through identification of non-medication related issues. Refer to the appropriate agencies as required.
• Educate and support the members of the multi-disciplinary teams with regard to medicines management issues.
• Devise and conduct training for others, including healthcare professionals, care staff, managers, members of the workforce development team as necessary, in aspects of domiciliary medicines management relevant to them.
• Contribute to the development and direction of the service.
• Promote the service to health and social care staff, patients and carers as appropriate. This may involve some work outside normal working hours to attend community-based initiatives such as health fairs etc.
• Evaluate the service through audit, surveys and other appropriate means.
• Be aware of the risks of lone working and take steps to manage these appropriate to the individual situation.
• Be able to respond to situations encountered in the home, including knowing who to call for help if necessary.
• Work with local, regional and national bodies and contribute to the development of medicines management training courses ensuring that they include both primary and secondary care aspects of medicines management.

Person specification

Qualifications

• A qualification approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council for registration as a Pharmacy Technician.
• Registered with General Pharmaceutical Council as a Pharmacy Technician
• Evidence of continuing professional development and its application

• Post-registration qualification in pharmacy or prescribing sciences
• Counselling Accreditation skills
• Registration with APTUK

Experience

• Post qualification experience in hospital, community or primary care pharmacy
• Experience of multidisciplinary and partnership working
• Experience of direct patient care and communication
• Experience of autonomous working

• Experience of working with social care providers
• Experience of teaching other health professionals
• Experience of fostering compliance and concordance with medicines, including knowledge of common compliance aids

Skills and adbilities

• Evidence of ability to evaluate a situation and apply evidence-based information, medicines management strategies and common sense to arrive at a workable solution
• Demonstrates excellent interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills
• Ability to talk on a one to one basis with patients in their own home
• Excellent time management skills
• Demonstrates understanding of safeguarding issues

• Good with technology
• Good IT skills
• Effective presentation skills

Knowledge

• Listens to and understands directly and indirectly expressed feelings
• Shows a realistic appreciation of the challenges of working with vulnerable adults
• Has a realistic knowledge of personal strengths and areas for development
• Demonstrates empathy for the concerns of others

Other

• Ability to travel to patients sometimes at short notice
• Understands requirements of lone working
• Manual dexterity to handle medications

Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.

We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:

• Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
• Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
• Children and young people’s mental health services;
• Children’s community services in Peterborough;
• Social care;
• Ground-breaking research

We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity.

CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.

Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a ‘Red List’ country.

Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.

If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre-employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.

All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.