Specialist Pharmacist Surgery and Peri-operative Medicine

Job overview

Building on your foundation knowledge, experience and skills, you will be working in a dynamic and rewarding setting to deliver compassionate excellence. As a specialist pharmacist you will grow in all four pillars of practice in order to prepare for an advanced practice role.

The post offers the unique opportunity to practice as a Specialist Pharmacist in General Surgery and Peri-operative medicine. Speciality areas managed include: Acute Surgery, Breast Surgery, Colorectal Surgery (including GI Physiology/Pelvic floor team and stoma therapy team), Endocrine Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery, Upper GI Surgery.

You will be part of the surgical and peri-op multi-disciplinary team providing peri-operative clinical and governance support to the Churchill Overnight Recovery Enhanced Care Unit, whilst supporting medicines management activity in elective surgery. The post offers opportunities to develop peri-operative elective services at the Churchill Hospital.

This post will provide opportunities to expand your expertise and skillset, mentor others, be involved in service development and/or research and to put your management and leadership skills into action in a supportive setting.

Candidates are likely to be subject to a two-part interview process. Initial appointment at Agenda for Change band 6 will be considered if a candidate does not yet meet the essential criteria for appointment at Agenda for Change band 7.

Main duties of the job

• To participate in and develop peri-operative clinical pharmacy services to the Churchill Overnight Recovery Enhanced Care Unit (CORU) and the Day Surgery Unit on the Churchill Hospital site and liaise with the directorate lead on expenditure and service issues. Including multidisciplinary team working with the peri-op team.
• To participate in and support development of the clinical pharmacy services to the elective general surgery wards at the Churchill hospital site. This includes multidisciplinary team working, providing specialist advice, and supporting clinical management plans and timely patient discharges.
• To participate in and support development of clinical pharmacy services within the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) team and to work with the ERAS team in developing and implementing ERAS guidelines within the Surgery Directorate
• To promote and ensure the safe and effective use of medicines within the Directorate to achieve high standards of medicines related aspects of patient care.
• To encourage the cost-effective use of medicines and to improve the quality of pharmaceutical care for patients.
• To provide specialised professional and technical education to enable the clinical units to meet high standards of patient care and safety.
• To be an active member of the pharmacy department and in the Directorate team and ensure continuous two-way exchange of information to maintain high standards of medicines use within the Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Direct Patient Care

• Deliver compassionate excellence via a patient focused clinical pharmacy service, in accordance with national medicines optimisation principles and local clinical pharmacy procedures.
• Analyse prescriptions, alongside technical resources, patient records and information from patient consults to form an opinion on the most appropriate course of action.
• Accurately and sensitively communicate medicines related information to a variety of healthcare professionals and patients including those with language difficulties, physical or mental disabilities, in a way that facilitates shared decision making.
• Optimise transfer of patient care, though timely completion of medicines reconciliation and communication with GPs and community pharmacy teams.
• Participate in and promote antimicrobial stewardship, medicines safety, and medicines effectiveness initiatives.
• Where relevant to a rotation complete training in clinical trials and support the supply of investigational medicinal products.
• Where a scope of practice has been identified within a rotation, train to become a NMP and when registered with the GPhC and the OUH to prescribe within the Trust’s policy for Non-medical Prescribing.
• Support OUH dispensaries, and liaise with external agencies (Such as aseptic production services or homecare providers) to ensure safe, timely and appropriate supply of medications to patients.

Supporting Professional Activities

• Complete a local induction programme, including core training and maintain core skills throughout employment.
• Act as a role model for pharmacy within the Trust, demonstrating the GPhC Standards for Pharmacy Professionals and our Trust values.
• Support and promote the Trusts equality, diversity and inclusion principles and our sustainability model.
• Plan and organise your own workload in alignment with professional and organisational priorities.
• Delegate and escalate appropriately.
• Report any unexpected or untoward events via the Trusts incident reporting system.
• Work collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team, and the support of your team lead, in developing the pharmacy service in line with the department and Trust strategies in response to changing service needs
• Support compliance with medicines related legislative and regulatory requirements, including maintaining the security and quality of medicines stock and be able to develop an action plan for improvements in a designated area.
• Support the development and implementation of treatment protocols and guidelines for use of medicines within the clinical area
• Contribute to and implement the clinical governance plans of the clinical area and the pharmacy clinical governance plans.
• Participate in, support and lead on Audits, Service evaluation and Quality/Cost Improvement Projects that align to our strategy and support our culture of continuous improvement.
• Provide specialised professional and technical education at a professional or under-graduate level and at a level that patient/carers can understand in both inpatient and outpatient clinical environments across the primary and secondary care settings.
• Tutor and support the training of trainee foundation pharmacists and technicians.
• Any other reasonable duties as requested by the Clinical Director of Pharmacy, or Associate Director of Pharmacy – Clinical Service.