Advanced Specialist Pharmacist HCE and Frailty (8a)

Transformationunitgm; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

An established healthcare organization is seeking a dedicated Advanced Specialist Pharmacist to join their dynamic team focused on the healthcare of older people and frailty. This role offers a unique opportunity to lead a multidisciplinary team, develop clinical pharmacy services, and engage in research initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess a Master's degree in Pharmacy, along with a strong commitment to patient care and the ability to work collaboratively within a team. Join a forward-thinking environment that values professional development and encourages innovative practices in elderly care.

Benefits

Flexible Working Hours

Professional Development Opportunities

Research Support

Health and Wellbeing Programs

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of clinical pharmacy and drug use in elderly care.
• Experience in leadership and managing pharmacy teams.
• Proven ability in teaching and mentoring pharmacy staff.

Responsibilities

• Lead the pharmacy team in providing clinical services to elderly patients.
• Develop and implement clinical pharmacy policies and guidelines.
• Monitor drug expenditure and ensure efficient resource use.

Skills

Clinical Pharmacy

Leadership

Communication

Teaching and Training

Non-medical Prescribing

Education

Master’s Degree in Pharmacy

Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Certificate

Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council

Tools

Clinical Guidelines

Pharmacy Management Systems

Job description

Advanced Specialist Pharmacist HCE and Frailty (8a)

Band 8a

Job overview

Are you an enthusiastic, motivated and demonstrably experienced clinical pharmacist with an interest in Healthcare of Older People and Frailty, looking to work within a tertiary centre?

Are you at the stage of your career where you are looking to develop your clinical skills and work within well-respected and proactive multidisciplinary teams supporting the Lead Care Group pharmacist for Healthcare of Elderly, Frailty, and Medicine to deliver high quality clinical pharmacy services across the healthcare of elderly service line?

Do you want to utilise your skills as a non-medical prescriber in both the inpatient and outpatient setting?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

Depending on the stage of your career, further study will be encouraged and supported. You will be given opportunities to explore and develop your own interests within the role and supported to build your career portfolio.

Research is encouraged and will be supported in this role; the Lead Pharmacist for Healthcare of Elderly, Frailty, and Medicine is a clinical academic with a strong record of attracting research funding and the department has previously hosted academic internships.

***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.***

Main duties of the job

• This post holder will be responsible for the provision of a high-quality patient focused clinical pharmacy service for patients within the Healthcare of Older People and Frailty areas.

• Act as team leader for the ward-based pharmacy team.

• Undertake teaching and clinical supervision of pharmacy staff and other healthcare employees.

• Provide specialist clinical pharmacy services and advice, demonstrating a high level of clinical effectiveness.

• Work closely with the lead pharmacist and associate chief pharmacist for clinical services on the strategic development of clinical pharmacy services

• Develop and manage the delivery of pharmacy services to ensure efficient use of resources and systems including monitoring drug expenditure, delivery of financial savings within the Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty service line.

• Work with the clinical and governance teams to develop guidelines, protocols and PGDs within the Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty areas.

Candidates who meet the qualifications for this post but may not yet demonstrate the full knowledge or experience required at Band 8a will still be considered for this role as a Band 7 to Band 8a progression opportunity. The successful candidate will receive the necessary support to achieve the required progression milestones and demonstrate the expected level of practice before progressing to an advanced specialist Band 8a role.

Working for our organisation

Established September 2024, the highly-ranked University of Bath MPharm degree is available to study at the University of Plymouth. There will be opportunities for pharmacist colleagues to participate in these educational activities, with the potential for more formal roles with the University of Bath in the future.

University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) NHS is the largest hospital on the Southwest Peninsula providing comprehensive secondary and tertiary care to a population of around 2,000,000 people who can access our specialist services including cardiothoracic surgery, kidney transplantation, neurosurgery, and the regional trauma Centre.

The Health Care for the Elderly (HCE) Department provides a high-quality patient focused service across Plymouth, South Devon and East Cornwall. The Department is based both at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust where all acute and urgent care for patients takes place, and across community sites where there are extensive facilities for rehabilitation and longer-term care. The HCE department is allied closely with the specialist Stroke Unit at the Trust and provides a broad range of services including falls, dementia, frailty, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and orthogeriatrics.

The Pharmacy team are considered an integral member of the multidisciplinary team supporting these services, joining a team of clinicians, nurse specialists, therapy staff and other allied healthcare professionals.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Responsible to the Lead Pharmacist for HCE, Frailty, and Medicine and Associate Chief Pharmacist Clinical Services for strategic planning and delivery of clinical pharmacy services to patients within Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Support the Chief Pharmacist / Deputy Chief Pharmacist / Associate Chief Pharmacist and Lead Pharmacist in developing, monitoring and reporting on drug expenditure and medicines budget and the delivery of financial savings as part of the pharmacy CIP.

• Development, implementation and update of clinical pharmacy policy in conjunction with the Lead pharmacist within Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Work as a member of the Clinical Pharmacy Team, Healthcare of the Elderly, and Frailty Service Lines and wider UHP pharmacy team.

• Monitor, review and report on medicines related incidents within Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Provide highly specialist clinical pharmacy care to patients in the Healthcare of the Elderly/Frailty areas and related units.

• To manage, lead and co-ordinate the Healthcare of the Elderly and frailty pharmacy teams including junior pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the provision of a safe, effective and efficient clinical pharmacy service in accordance with local and national standards and strategy. To also ensure all members of the pharmacy team are trained and competent for their roles.

• To act as a role model as a clinical pharmacist and team leader, to pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy support assistants and all other members of the multidisciplinary team.

• To be a lead and role model in the field of Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty locally, regionally, and nationally.

• To practice as an independent prescriber.

• To work towards advanced clinical practice.

• To engage with audit, quality improvement, practice and other research.

• To write and review policies and procedures relevant to pharmacy

practice in Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Monitor and evaluate medicines related protocols and guidelines in Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Ensure an appropriate level of clinical pharmacy service is provided to the Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty.

• Propose policy or service changes which improve services and may have multidisciplinary and resource implications.

• Configure and implement inductions for pharmacists in Healthcare of the Elderly/Frailty and the pharmacy department with support from the Associate Chief Pharmacist Clinical Services and Lead Pharmacists.

• Assist in the development and implementation of PGD’s and non-medical prescribing initiatives, when appropriate.

• Ensure that expertise within your area is seen as a resource within and outside the Trust and form working partnerships with other health and social care service providers.

• Recommendation of appropriate therapy for individual patients where evidence is not available, controversial evidence exists or other professionals may challenge advice

• Contribute to the organisations wider antimicrobial surveillance programme, implementing local programmes ensuring appropriate antimicrobial prescribing

• Attendance at Consultant/GP white board/MDT meetings/ward rounds to actively facilitate and provide advice on treatment, including highly complex patients.

• Promote compliance by prescribers and other healthcare staff with local/national policies and the South and West Devon Formulary.
• Application of highly complex knowledge of the evidence base behind drug therapies used.

• Manage day to day medicines queries, including face to face consultations with patients identified to have compliance or other problems in medicine administration.

• Refer patients to other community services where appropriate.

• Liaise with all levels of healthcare staff, patients and carers in all areas of work.

• Analysis, interpretation and monitoring of clinical data including but not limited to: drug levels, U&E’s, blood counts and microbiological sensitivities to guide diagnosis and drug therapy.

• Assess clinical requirements of patients as a clinical pharmacist and an independent prescriber through interpretation of clinical data and examination. If required request appropriate tests and examinations for patients directly under your care.

• Contribute to pharmaceutical initiatives that help with the seamless transfer of patients between different healthcare settings.

• Provide education and training to all healthcare professionals including medical students.

• Pharmacists are expected to work largely unsupervised and to act on their own professional judgement.

• Clinical supervision from another health professional can be arranged and is to be encouraged.

• Clinical roles are supported by policies and guidelines within which the pharmacist is allowed to exercise professional discretion / interpretation.

• Participate in any wider departmental rotas where needed.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Pharmacy
• Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Certificate
• 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)
• Active member of Care of the Elderly Group within UKCPA, Member of the Acute frailty Network or equivalent pharmacist specialist interest group
• Research qualification or equivalent demonstrable experience (e.g. MRes, MSc, research internship)

Knowledge & Experience

• Excellent proven knowledge of clinical pharmacy and drug use with the area of Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty
• Demonstrable experience in a range of clinical specialties
• Excellent proven knowledge of general clinical pharmacy and drug use
• Senior demonstrable pharmacy management experience within a recognised area of pharmacy practice
• Proven skills in effective leadership, successful communication, negotiating, persuasion and influencing
• Proven knowledge of strategic care agendas
• Proven understanding of NHS priorities and how to apply these locally
• Excellent oral and written communication skills to address highly complex issues
• Proven evidence of CPD
• Report writing skills
• Demonstrable experience of teaching, training and people development
• Demonstrable experience of providing diploma mentorship and/or pre-registration tutorship
• Proven knowledge of treatment pathways and medicines optimisation priorities with the areas of Healthcare of the Elderly and Frailty
• Previous demonstrable experience of providing support to the management of a hospital directorate or division
• Demonstrable experience of designing and developing pharmacy services
• Demonstrable experience in undertaking and presenting research (includes audit, quality, and service improvement projects)
• Demonstrable experience in budget management and staff management

Aptitude and Abilities

• Good communication skills, written and verbal, with ability to demonstrate fluency, clarity and effectiveness at all levels
• Proven knowledge and understanding of financial issues
• Well-developed teaching and presentation skills

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.

Please note that if you are successful in your application & accept the position you agree that the Staff Health and Wellbeing Department can access your health records from your current/previous employer in order to check the status of your inoculations & screening tests. 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.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Dr Anneka Mitchell Job title Lead Pharmacist for Healthcare of Older People Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07767 353459 Additional information

For an informal discussion or to arrange a site visit please contact Anneka Mitchell, Lead Pharmacist for Healthcare of Elderly, Frailty, and Medicine [e-mail]