County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Support the Medication Safety Officer (MSO) to lead on the Trust wide development, implementation and monitoring of quality, safety and governance issues related to the use of medicines. This role will focus on leading on the reporting, learning and development into prevention of medication related incidents/adverse medication events, thereby aiming to improve the safety of patients/service users and staff in relation to all aspects of medicines usage.
Responsible for supporting the quality and safety agenda within the Pharmacy department and for specified areas and roles across the Care Groups and the wider Trust. These include; education and training, safe and secure handling of medicines, medication incident management, medicines management, clinical pharmacy, patient safety and clinical governance.
Main duties of the job
Specialist expertise in training, medication safety and risk management and ensures the training needs for the department with respect to medicines safety and quality are prioritised, delivered and assessed.
Provide specialist advice and expertise to all members of the Care Group, the Trust and the wider health economy.
Attend meetings and be pro-active members of Care Group Patient Safety Governance Teams and work closely with the medication safety team members, Trust Safety Managers, pharmacy teams and healthcare professionals to influence local practice to ensure safe medication use and risk minimisation.
Job responsibilities
The post holder will:
1. Support the work of the Chief Pharmacist, Chief Pharmacy Technician, MSO and the Medicines Safety team, ensuring appropriate action to meet performance targets relating to Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines, Medication Incident Management and to promote compliance with local and national medicines management standards, the Trust Medicine Policy and other Trust priorities, for example NHS LA, CQC and NPSA.
2. Work with the Medicines Safety Team and Trust Patient Safety Managers to promote patient safety and minimise risk with regards to medicines and undertake a pro-active role to ensure safe medication practice in the Trust by involvement in the Care Group Patient Safety Governance Teams.
3. Monitor safe medication practice, undertake risk assessments when indicated and take part in root cause analysis for incidents, ensuring that the Care Groups responsibilities are escalated appropriately.
4. Provide regular reports to the Trust Safety Committee, Care Group Governance meetings and to other Committees (including submissions to the Trust Board) as requested; including analysis to identify trends to improve patient safety relating to medicines, analysis of medication related incident data from the Trusts electronic incident reporting system, using appropriate computer software, compiling findings into reports and making recommendations of strategies to reduce the frequency and severity of medicines related incidents and to improve future practice in this area.
Quality
The post holder will:
1. Support the MSO and Chief Pharmacy Technician to develop, implement, monitor and manage a quality and safety strategy for the Trust and Care Groups that will deliver safe, effective and efficient pharmacy and medicines management services and support successful delivery of the Trusts agenda.
2. Participate in the development and updating of documentation and Standard Operating Procedures for the Pharmacy Department.
Staff Management
The post holder will:
1. Line manage a dedicated group of pharmacy staff across the Trust as agreed with the Lead Technicians (Medicines Management/Medicines Optimisation) for the following, according to Trust procedures which will include:
* appraisals and objective setting.
* disciplinary and grievance matters.
* recruitment and selection.
1. In conjunction with other Lead Technicians, be responsible for the authorisation of annual leave for pharmacy technicians and assistants, ensuring appropriate levels of staffing across the department.
2. Identify and facilitate the training and development needs of Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacy assistants in line with service needs and personal development plans.
3. Support the Lead Pharmacist with responsibility for Education & Training in coordinating and delivering education and training to other healthcare staff as required.
4. Co-ordinate and advise on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for all technical staff within Pharmacy.
Education and Training
The post holder will:
1. Support, co-ordinate and deliver training to the wider pharmacy team on issues associated with patient safety.
2. Support the provision of training regarding the patient safety agenda to nursing and medical staff, ranging from one to one communications to more formal presentations in order to promote medicines safety.
Person Specification
Statutory Registration
* Registered as a Pharmacy Technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council
Qualifications
* Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Pharmacy Service Skills (or equivalent qualifications recognized by the GPhC)
* Level 3 Diploma in Pharmaceutical Science (QCF) (or equivalent qualifications recognized by the GPhC)
* Obtained an appropriate higher qualification to at least degree level or willing to commence within 12 months
* Commitment to CPD and personal development
* Leadership/supervisory experience
Special Requirements
* Able to build good relationships with colleagues
* Ability to communicate complex information where there may barriers to understanding and where information may be challenged or where opinions may differ
* Team player who delegates appropriately
* A problem solver with good negotiation and influencing skills
* Desire to develop clinical skills
* Able to prioritise own workload
* Able to travel across Trust sites to meet the requirements of the post
Experience
* Extensive experience as a qualified Pharmacy Technician in an acute hospital setting
* Extensive experience of working in a ward environment and relevant medicines management experience.
* Experience of a specialist pharmacy technician role or experience of supervising a relevant technical area
* Experience of training staff.
* Experience of pharmacy/prescribing computer systems
* Experience of HR practices
* Experience of pharmacy practice research
* Experience of working as a qualified senior Pharmacy Technician in a primary care or community pharmacy setting
* Experience of working in a patient safety and medicines governance role
Special Skills & Knowledge
* Knowledge of change/project management
* Knowledge of a relevant Pharmacy computer system.
* Advanced skills in Microsoft Office especially spreadsheets.
* Good analytical skills
* Good organisational skills, including planning and prioritising.
* Ability to manipulate, present and explain data to varying levels of staff
* Application of Quality Improvement methodology
* Evidence of self-development
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
£37,338 to £44,962 a year per annum, pro rata
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