CELTIC CONFERENCE
HIDDEN GEMS By John Macgill T
ed Butler moved into coaching after playing top-flight rugby, and was a teacher before
moving into business. So it was perhaps inevitable that he should take forward his fascination with how people can be supported to develop their potential when he founded Pharmacy Management.
‘Wherever you are, the healthcare system is always going through change and challenge as it tries to maintain and improve patient care with limited resources,’ he says. ‘Meeting the needs and expectations of patients as they live longer will always be down to good leaders leading people in the best way to deliver the best care.
‘Pharmacists have real, untapped skills to be excellent leaders of tomorrow. They’ve done a four-year course at university and then been dealing with people all the time. They are hidden gems.’
There are, of course, examples of pharmacists in top jobs outside pharmacy including the chief executive of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Jann Gardner, who started her career as a clinical pharmacist. The CLIP programme, says Ted Butler, is about allowing more pharmacists to realise their potential to lead, either within the profession or on the wider stage.
‘We are really fortunate in the support that we get from the pharmacy profession including a National Reference Group of senior pharmacists in Scotland who help us design the CLIP programme. They understand the issues that pharmacy faces on the ground in Scotland and help us craft the programme’s ten interactive modules.
‘Three trainers, each with particular skills, are putting together a really relevant mix of skills development and problem solving sessions. And there’s also a big research element. Everyone has to complete an innovative, workplace-based, healthcare improvement project which, with the support of some of my colleagues, they will draw together and present as a poster at the Pharmacy Management National Forum for Scotland in Glasgow in August, explaining how their work will improve patient care in NHS Scotland.’
The biggest group of those accepted onto this year’s cohort are pharmacists working in general practice. Alongside them are colleagues working in secondary care and also future leaders from three companies that are sponsoring the programme: Daiichi Sankyo UK, GSK and Napp Pharmaceuticals.
Ted Butler says the delegates from industry are completely integrated into the programme: an approach, he says, that works.
‘Coming from a more commercial background, they have perhaps a different skillset to pharmacy colleagues and bring different perspectives to challenges. Having industry colleagues there is something that pharmacist delegates tell me they see, after a while, as really adding something powerful to everyone’s learning.’
Current senior leaders in pharmacy and healthcare are not just shaping the course. They are taking part as well. The final day of the programme in November will see some people in top jobs sitting down with the current cohort to share their experience of what worked well and what future leaders might wish to avoid doing.
CLIP Alumni Jill Cruickshank was a member of the first CLIP cohort in Scotland. She now divides her time between clinical practice and running a coaching and development consultancy: Leading2Solutions.
She says taking part in the programme was a great experience that didn’t stop when the course ended.
‘CLIP offered fantastic Leadership training and development and offered me the opportunity to do a research project into understanding what is needed to develop our pharmacy profession from competence to confidence, a subject I am passionate about - and to talk about it a Scottish
A GROUP OF SCOTTISH PHARMACISTS HAS EMBARKED ON A YEAR-LONG PROGRAMME TO HELP THEM DEVELOP THEIR SKILLS AS FUTURE LEADERS IN SCOTTISH HEALTH. IT’S THE SECOND TIME THE CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN PHARMACY (CLIP) PROGRAMME HAS BEEN RUN IN SCOTLAND. THE MAN BEHIND CLIP, TED BUTLER, SAYS HE BELIEVES PHARMACISTS ARE TOO OFTEN OVERLOOKED WHEN IT COMES TO HEADING UP TEAMS OUTSIDE THEIR OWN PROFESSION.
National Forum. Since completing the programme, I have undertaken two further research projects on the same topic.
‘Nearly four years on, I still connect regularly with this brilliant network of likeminded professionals.’
Millie Galvin has been appointed Lead Clinical Cancer Pharmacist for NHS Grampian since completing the CLIP programme.
‘Prior to CLIP, my professional development was very much focused on clinical knowledge and communication with patients. It didn’t include developing skills such as negotiation, communication or conflict management essential for those in leadership roles.
‘So much of the programme was working with others. Some were further along in their careers and able to offer wise words and experience – mentoring almost – while I found working with the pharma representatives encouraging and enlightening as they brought different skills and approaches to tasks.
‘CLIP helped me hone my skills, reflect on how I approach things and put learning into practice. Because it’s not just a short two or three day course, you get time to grow. And it absolutely helped me to get this lead role. The skills I gained played a pivotal part.’
SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 47
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