Specialist Pharmacy Technician - Healthcare at Home & Community

Job description Job responsibilities Main Duties and Responsibilities Provide medicines management support to specialist community clinics (e.g. TB, respiratory, diabetes, anticoagulation, heart failure), including medication review, patient counselling, adherence monitoring, identification of medicines-related risks and contribution to clinical pathways. Assess, plan, implement and evaluate medicines management interventions in patients homes or in clinics run by the Community Services.Identify and address reasons for non-adherence and develop tailored concordance strategies. Maintain accurate documentation of activity, recommendations and outcomes in line with trust standards, inclusive of computer and patient held records. Support safe transfer of care between healthcare settings by addressing medicine-related barriers to discharge and continuity. Work in partnership with a range of muti-disciplinary and organisational personnel within both secondary and primary care, adopting a collaborative approach, together with the patient, their family and carers, as well as colleagues including GPs, community pharmacy, and wider MDT. Support TB services through monitoring adherence, recognising adverse effects of anti-tuberculous therapy, and escalating concerns to the specialist team. Provide specialist advice and practical support to patients and carers regarding medicines use, empowering them to manage their medicines and encouraging independence and self-reliance. Devise and provide individualised, structured medication counselling programmes taking a holistic view of the patients and /or informal carers, social situation and health and social support networks, particularly for those identified as being at risk of medication related problems. This will include the purpose of medication, potential side effects and their management and when to seek help. Provide counselling and demonstration of inhalers, insulin pens and other medical device techniques with particular focus on long-term condition self-management and optimisation of chronic therapies. Deliver patient education through a range of formats, including group forums and structured educational sessions. Provide medicines related advice and training as appropriate to MDT colleagues and care providers. Act as liaison between the community and acute sector in relation to the pharmacy pathway for the patient when required. Complete complex assessment, contribute to care plans in the community ensuring adequate liaison for safe discharge /transfer and seamless service. Support admission avoidance and early intervention for patients with long-term conditions through proactive medicines optimisation, particularly in high-risk groups (e.g. frailty, respiratory disease, diabetes) by contributing to rapid assessment and appropriate medication support for patients to remain in the community. Contribute to safer discharge from hospital, care home or on other transfer of care to avoid problems associated with medicines. Provide domiciliary visits to review medication-taking activities in patients identified as being at high risk of medicine related problems that have been recently discharged from acute care. Accept referrals from other healthcare professionals for patients deemed to be at risk from their medicines. Work with patients and residential homes to contribute to safe medicines management. Contribute to overall patient health and social care though identification of non-medication related or safeguarding issues and refer by the appropriate processes. Report medicine-related incidents and contribute to investigation and group wide learning from these events. Escalate complex or recurrent incidents/risks to the Specialist Pharmacist - Healthcare at Home or service lead as appropriate. Support with developing and maintaining Standard Operating Procedures and other documents relevant to the role and wider trust as required. Contribute to service improvement activity, audit and evaluation under the direction of the Specialist Pharmacist - Healthcare at Home and in collaboration with Community Service Leads. There is also a requirement to be able to handle sensitive and potentially difficult patient issues, lone working, and for travel across Luton and Bedfordshire. Communication To communicate effectively with EEC staff, hospital colleagues, patients, their family/carers, as well as colleagues in primary care, integrated care board, community pharmacy and social care. To facilitate clear and effective communication channels between patients, relatives, carers and professional community colleagues to ensure seamless patient care To communicate, provide and receive sensitive patient medical information, taking into account peoples backgrounds, cultures and personal preferences. The post holder will be expected to effectively and respectfully communicate information regarding prescribed medicines to patients and carers. They will need to explain the reasoning for and purpose of each medicine to the patient, and the risks of not taking them as prescribed. There may be communication difficulties, which may require the application of different strategies. To make an accurate record of their activities, plans and strategies in the clinical record. The important relationships job holder must maintan: o Patients and families o Range of hospital personnel o Full range of Community health services teams, including safeguarding o Team and administrators o General Practitioners o Primary Care Network personnel o Community pharmacy staff o Local Authority personnel, including social services o Domiciliary care agencies o Integrated Care Board Budgetary Responsibility The post-holder will be expected to support the cost-effective use of medicines and avoid waste wherever possible. To support the services to ensure the security and appropriate use of stocks of drugs and other devices used for pharmaceutical purposes. To improve patient care, reduce medication related problems, avoidable hospital admissions and reduce drug costs and waste. To be alert to hoarding of unused medicines and work with the patient and the prescriber to reduce the wastage associated with this. They should be aware of, and be able, to guide to enable appropriate destruction of waste medicines. People Management Maintaining own professional development and requirement to take part in appraisal and KSF process To provide guidance and advice to colleagues within and outside the Trust in regard to the safe management of medicines. This may involve liaising with care agencies, or healthcare support workers. Training of healthcare support workers will be required. To be involved in the checking of transcribing of medication and records of medicines administered by others in a diplomatic and non-judgmental way, in order to ensure safe patient care. This may include those administered by care agency staff. Research & Development Activity To participate in research and audit to identify education, training needs and areas for service development relevant to the organisation. To work collaboratively with other members of the Pharmacy Team to develop and share best practice and integrate research evidence into practice to enhance the quality of service provision Clinical and Practice Governance Work in accordance with Trust policies and mandatory training relevant to own role, including medicines management, safeguarding, information governance, infection prevention and equality and diversity. Observe and maintain strict confidentiality with regards to any patient/family/staff/records and information in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Any data that is taken/shared as part of a phone call or transported, faxed, or transferred electronically must be undertaken with regard to the Trust Information Governance and Information Security policies. The post holder must adhere to the Trust risk assessment and risk management processes. The post holder must adhere to infection control policies and procedures including specific consideration of communicable diseases such as TB where relevant to the role. Be aware of Health & Safety issues relevant to the Trusts working environment and report as appropriated to the designated Health & Safety Officer in accordance with Trust policy. Maintain safe systems of working accordance with relevant Medicines Act and Health and Safety legislation, and to ensure that defects, which may affect Safety at Work, are brought to attention of appropriated manager. It is a condition of your employment that you are currently registered with your professional body, and it is your responsibility to maintain your professional registration. Undertake mandatory training and any other training relevant to the role as required by East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust. The post holder must participate in clinical and safeguarding audits as required Provide patients and their families /carers with information on standards they should expect from the team The post holder is required to participate in relevant emergency preparedness process for their team