Specialist Clinical Pharmacist Antimicrobials

at  North Tees Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust

To proactively promote safe and evidence based prescribing, through liaison with all grades of doctors and non-medical prescribers, in line with local and national initiatives and guidelines. To liaise with and support all pharmacy staff with respect to antimicrobial issues. To work closely with the Consultant Microbiologists and Infection Prevention and Control team, and attend ward rounds as appropriate. To work as part of the multi-disciplinary team to undertake a root cause analysis in response to patients who have been classed as a trust-attributed Clostridium difficile cases.
To use communication skills to overcome barriers to change and understanding. To provide effective communication to ensure seamless transfer of pharmaceutical care needs between care settings. Undertake any other relevant duties as requested by the pharmacist in charge of section. Work with and deputise for the Highly Specialised Pharmacist - Antimicrobials, supporting with the development and updating of policies and guidelines.
To record and monitor team metric data and evaluate the effectiveness of the service. To record, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of pharmaceutical interventions and contributions to ward rounds, and report back interventions to specialist area. To identify areas of risk within the specialty and ensure these are managed appropriately in conjunction with the manager. To be actively involved in the reporting of incidents and review of incidents submitted by other members of staff via InPhase, and to analyse and report on these to minimise future risks associated with them.
To report, analyse and record adverse drug reactions, prescribing errors and risks. To feedback prescribing errors to individuals at appropriate meetings. Plan own workload and manage clinical governance and pharmaceutical risk issues within clinical area. Participate and contribute to the delivery of departmental and team objectives.
Participate in local and regional forums/meeting. Undertake the professional duties of a pharmacist in order to ensure that the medicine use process conforms to legal, ethical and moral guidelines accepted by the General Pharmaceutical Council. Maintain mandatory requirements for revalidation, as laid out by the GPhC. Ability to concentrate for prolonged periods.
Standard keyboard skills and use of Microsoft office applications. Able to move sites/attend off site venues for meetings, which may include travel within the region. Work as an autonomous pharmacist to provide a safe and effective service to patients in accordance with legal requirements, accepted professional and ethical standards and agreed local policies and procedures. To provide a high quality specialist clinical service to a designated ward or group of wards (this includes medicines reconciliation, prescription event monitoring, TDM, patient counselling on medicines use, attending Consultant ward rounds) as defined in SOPs.
To ensure seamless transfer of care across healthcare settings by the use of discharge medicines service via Outcomes4Health. To actively participate in ward rounds and multidisciplinary meetings as required. To review appropriateness of prescribing of antibiotics for individual patients as required, liaising with medical teams or lead pharmacist where adjustments to therapy are recommended. To act as an Independent Prescriber (once qualified) to provide direct care to patients by means of any Trust prescribing stationery.
To assess the pharmaceutical care needs of patients whose medicine needs may be complex e.g. patients with swallowing difficulties, oral route not available. To provide specialist pharmaceutical advice and counselling to patients, relatives and carers, all grades of medical and nursing staff to ensure that all service users receive appropriate, evidence-based medicines information and advice. To develop, plan and audit pharmaceutical services, identifying and implementing quality measures and drug related clinical guidelines in own clinical area in collaboration with the Lead Pharmacists and Associate Chief Pharmacist Clinical Services.
Propose and support implementation of service changes within clinical area. To participate and support with implementation of guidelines, e.g. NICE and local initiatives relating to antimicrobials Support with systems to ensure all pharmacists are proactively involved in managing the use of antimicrobials appropriately. To provide service development contributions to the antimicrobial service providers e.g.
Infection Prevention and Control team, Antimicrobial Stewardship group and Community Services teams delivering outpatient antimicrobial services. Support the educational program for all staff around the rationale use and administration of antimicrobial agents. To be aware of and comply with all departmental and section procedures. To contribute to the development of the pharmacy service at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust.
To contribute to drug budget setting within specialist area as needed. To undertake projects that will improve the quality of patient care and / or reduce expenditure. To provide clinical pharmacy teaching for foundation and trainee pharmacists in accordance with their competency based training schemes. To support the development and delivering of induction, education and training to nursing staff, medical staff and other health care professionals as appropriate.
To contribute to the in-house clinical pharmacy training courses with supervision and assessment of other pharmacy staff including technicians and MPharm students. To be the named designated supervisor to trainee pharmacists (as required) under the direction of a designated senior pharmacist. Organise training sessions under the direction of a designated senior pharmacist. Supervise and support junior pharmacy staff in performing their duties.
Act as a designated and authorised Pharmacy key holder. Participate in an out of hours on-call service, after necessary training/supervision. Review training and development of designated staff through a personal development plan and support staff in reaching their full potential as identified through the appraisal process. To act as a Responsible Pharmacist when covering the in-patient or out-patient dispensaries in this Trust, including on the Hartlepool site, which may include supervising the Over the Counter Medicines sales direct to patients, using your skills in managing minor ailments.
To act as a source of expert drug advice and information to all levels of medical and nursing staff. To provide advice, information and updates on new drugs and treatment strategies within specialist area. To detect, record and report Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) on admission to the MHRA via the yellow card scheme as well as drug related clinical incidents according to Trust policy. To maintain and further develop specialist medicines information skills in own specialist area in conjunction with the Medicines Advice Service.
To undertake, encourage and promote practice based research. To be involved in national/regional multidisciplinary specialist interest groups relevant to specialist area. Participate in clinical trials. Maintain own personal development in pharmacy matters

Please refer the Job description for details