EDUCATION
EARLY IN THEIR CAREER, PHARMACISTS NEED TO FEEL CONFIDENT, SUPPORTED AND COMPETENT. FIONA MCMILLAN, PRINCIPAL LEAD AT NHS EDUCATION FOR SCOTLAND (NES), EXPLAINS HOW A NEW CROSS-SECTOR FOUNDATION PROGRAMME WILL HELP.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE THROUGH A FLEXIBLE APPROACH
T
he importance of a good start to your career has been recognised for a long time with rotational training to allow a good grounding in all areas to establish a foundation to then build on. That’s why since 1997 a Scottish Vocational Training Scheme (SVTS) for `early career` pharmacists in the hospital service was developed and consistently rolled out across Scotland. A Vocational Training programme like this aims ‘to increase the confi dence and competence of this group of pharmacists early in their career, to give them the opportunity to develop a systematic approach to practice, within their limitations and to empower them to refer to other members of the healthcare team.’
During 2016 -17, the Scottish Vocational Training Scheme (SVTS) hospital programme for early careers,4 more commonly known as ‘Stage 2’ was reviewed and developed to support early career pharmacists across all sectors of care and to allow a more fl exible way of working. As a result, it was rebranded as the NES Pharmacist Vocational Training (VT) `Foundation` Programme.5
Building
on the Pre-registration training year, the programme aims to develop behaviours and skills to produce pharmacists who have a systematic approach to practice and the ability to resolve complex issues in practice using an evidence-based approach to practice. Through good teamworking skills and the adoption of early leadership skills, they are well placed to become well respected members of the wider healthcare team. Key to this is the development of interpersonal skills, confi dence and resilience.
The newly-styled programme is accessible to early career pharmacists working in hospital, primary care and community pharmacy practice and is ideally suited to those
14 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
working in more than one area of practice, either in rotational posts or those working in fl exible careers. The programme comprises of a curriculum with underpinning resources, minimal taught face-to-face sessions with ongoing support from nominated and trained Professional Support pharmacists/tutors and their employers, as well as a robust assessment process. The programme assures employers that pharmacists early in their career are developing and evolving their provision of person- centred pharmaceutical care essential to meet the recently launched Scottish Government Strategy for pharmacy ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care`.6
At the same time, I can’t stress enough the emphasis on learning in context and refl ecting on experience which together promote deeper and more meaningful learning.1,2
pharmacy ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care’, the Lord Carter report and the Out of Hours review. A further drive for the change was new funding from the Scottish Government to employ pharmacists in General Practice.7
However,
this is not the whole solution. Interaction and social activity in the work place is also key to successful learning. That’s the insight behind our newly-launched NES Pharmacist VT ‘Foundation` Programme’3 which has also been mapped to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Foundation Framework which has meant that NES has been awarded RPS Foundation School Accreditation status. Any early career pharmacist successfully completing the NES programme will then automatically gain RPS Foundation status (if they are or become an RPS member) which is recognised across GB.
WHAT WERE THE DRIVERS FOR CHANGE?
The drivers for change were the key national strategies, a need to ensure development of the workforce to refl ect service redesign as mentioned in the recently launched Scottish Government Strategy for
HOW WAS THE CHANGE MANAGED? The aim of the project was to develop a Vocational Training programme for pharmacists in their fi rst two-three years (1,000 days) of practice that was applicable to not just the hospital early career pharmacists, but also could be used for those pharmacists working in primary care and community pharmacy. This was developed in a stage wise process whilst maintaining continuity of training for current trainees. The programme had to be equitable and fl exible, with common ‘core’ competencies that were achievable by all as well as ‘sector’ specifi c competencies. The programme has been developed in such a way that it can be used for early career pharmacists who only want to work in one sector of practice, those who are employed in rotational posts across two or all three sectors or for those pharmacists who like to maintain fl exibility within their career.
KEY CHALLENGES WERE: • short timelines
• requirement to set up working groups
• negotiating and seeking agreement between the working groups
• requirement to develop the framework in two formats (paper-based and electronic as an e-portfolio)
• the need to ensure continuity of training from February 2015 of the current 85 Hospital VT trainees.
DEVELOPING THE COMBINED FRAMEWORK The three working groups (community, hospital and primary care) had to decide on their view of a Foundation pharmacist (FP) and what skills they required to deliver pharmaceutical care in Scotland. Reviewing the RPS Foundation framework, the working groups were tasked with development of a set of ‘Core’ competencies and other competencies that were specifi c to that area of practice. They also had to determine examples from the area of practice that would ensure that Foundation pharmacists would understand what was required to meet the competency. It took several
FIGURE 1. TIMELINES FOR THE PROJECT
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
