East of England: Matching Community Pharmacists with DPPs (community pharmacy)

Introduction

There is no single solution to remedy the complexity of providing Designated Prescribing Practitioners (DPPs) for community pharmacists. Case studies like this one identify trailblazers and thought leaders for you and your organisation to connect with, to learn from each other and develop bespoke solutions.

This case study, while at ideation stage, offers a unique solution and potential scope for collaboration.

Project lead contact: Lindsay.morgan@uea.ac.uk

Local challenges

• Lack of prescribing mentorship/role modelling for community pharmacists
• No relationship basis on which to negotiate DPP support for training​ 
• Lack of uptake of Independent Prescribing (IP) training, due to community pharmacists being unable to see how their skills will be used ​ 
• Lack of value offered to DPP in exchange for supervision​
• Consistent underutilisation of NHS England funded IP training 

Novel intervention

• Used Cialdini's principle of persuasion (Commitment and Consistency), to match DPP to pharmacist:
  • Targeted self-declared health advocates who meet DPP criteria
  • Leveraged the pre-commitment to advocacy in this clinical area 
  • Higher Education Institution then matched a DPP with a pharmacist with a similar or complementary interest​

Local DPP database

Not at present. However, a data sharing agreement for the purposes of ‘matching’ individuals could allow a local organisation to hold some information. Open to the possibility.

Timescale and resources

While there was no specific funding for this intervention, it did require time for administration, record-keeping, stakeholder identification, introductory sessions, and initial meetings.

Key advice and lessons learnt

• This project is in the ideation stage and development is in progress.
• Key lessons learnt so far are that there are pockets of opportunity where organisations overlap and a prescribing pharmacist could deliver integrated, patient-centric care. For this to happen: building networks and keeping note of key clinical influencers who could support are imperative.

Research and evaluation

To follow. For more information, please contact the project lead: Lindsay.morgan@uea.ac.uk