Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician Apprentice

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust; Bury St Edmunds; On-site; GBP 19,000; Full time

Job summary

A community-focused NHS Trust is seeking an Apprentice Pharmacy Technician to train in a hospital setting. The role involves dispensing medications, checking patient drugs, and counselling patients under supervision. Candidates should be committed to ongoing study while working. This opportunity supports personal development and contributes to the well-being of patients within a multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

• Willingness to study 8-10 hours per week alongside work.
• Ability to work under supervision of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
• Understanding of the medication dispensing process.

Responsibilities

• Dispense medications and validate prescriptions.
• Work in a team to check patient medications and supply required drugs.
• Counsel patients on their medications under supervision.

Skills

Communication

Teamwork

Dispensing medications

Patient counselling

Education

Completed secondary education

Job description

As an apprentice pharmacy technician, you will be trained across an acute care setting using both on and off the job learning. This will provide you with the underpinning knowledge and skill set necessary for you to dispense medications, receive and validate prescriptions, communicate with patients and other healthcare professionals and optimise patients' use of medications.

As an apprentice working within a hospital setting under the supervision of pharmacists and qualified pharmacy technicians, you will be trained to work as part of a multi‑professional team, checking patients own medications, suppling medications to individuals, obtaining accurate drug histories for individuals and counselling patients for best practice on the use of their medications.

You will complete a 2‑year course provided by the University of East Anglia which includes:

• Attending at mixture of face to face and online study days
• Completing online assessments
• Completing an e‑Portfolio of work‑based assessments and other evidence designed to meet the GPhC standards of initial education and training of pharmacy technicians

To support you in completing this work you will be provided with study time during working hours but will also be expected to commit to at least 8–10 hours of study per week outside of the workplace.

You will be allocated an education supervisor who will support you in the workplace, and a UEA tutor who will support you with the course.

Pharmacy Technicians manage the supply of medicines and devices in pharmacy, assist Pharmacists with advisory services and are responsible for carrying out both routine and specialist services, including highly complex activities requiring them to use their professional judgement. They are expected to work both individually and as part of a multi‑disciplinary team. They are able to work with minimum supervision, with a high degree of autonomy, taking responsibility for the quality and accuracy of the work that they have undertaken and that of others.

As a Pharmacy Technician Apprentice, you will be trained with the knowledge and skills to optimise patients' use of medicines.

In the dispensary: Dispense medication, receive and validate prescriptions, communicate with patients and other healthcare professionals.

In the ward setting: Work as part of a multi‑professional team to check patients own drugs and supply medications for individuals, take patient drug histories, undertake medicines reconciliation, counsel patients on the use of their medicines as required under supervision of a Pharmacist or Pharmacy Technician.

#BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community

We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings.

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward). It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge.

Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital.

We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and team work guide how we work and behave as a team.

With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be.

We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyone's voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are.