East of England: Two-year triple recognition postgraduate pharmacy education (secondary care)

Introduction

• This case reviews how one higher education institute (HEI), the University of East Anglia, developed an educational programme to prepare the new generation of prescribing pharmacists in secondary care
• The newly qualified pharmacist independent prescribing (NQP-IP) is a 2-year course that gives the pharmacists triple accreditation upon completion
• The project aimed to identify designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) to complement specific modules/learning needs throughout the 2-year course. This 'mosaic' approach to DPPs provides learners with depth and breadth of learning. It also reduces the time commitment on one single DPP

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

Local challenges

• Legacy workforce of new graduates from 2021-2026 
• Huge competition for traditional independent prescribing (IP) training places 
• Pharmacists eligible for IP training may still lack basic clinical training and experience 
• Lack of clear service expectation for newly qualified prescribing pharmacists – “What do we do with them all?” 
• Lack of DPP capacity within pharmacy departments 

Novel intervention

• Newly Qualified Pharmacist Independent Prescribing (NQP-IP) is a 2-year course postgraduate (PG) that embeds prescribing practice throughout NQP training
• Defined, identical scope of practice – consistent graduates for rotational hospital service 
• Mosaic approach to DPPs, to ensure broad oversight as well as scope-specific expertise. Multiprotection DPP input as well as senior pharmacist.
• Currently being piloted in 4 hospitals 
• Includes Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) post-registration credential (triple award = clinical diploma, IP, RPS recognition) 

Local DPP database?

Partially: have records of our students who could form a pipeline for future DPPs 

Timescale and resources

• Currently piloting cohort 1, due to complete December 2024 
• Cohort 2 enrolling December 2023 
• Approaching new partners now – contact if interested in this option for your band 6 pharmacists
• The first 6 months are intense, due to the myriad GPhC requirements/vocab needed alongside NQP – learners need to attend induction and maintain good communications with the university

Key advice and lessons learnt

• NQP-IP so far is feasible and early career pharmacists are thriving on controlled exposure to autonomy and regular feedback 
• Approach to DPP organisation needs to be strategic – this not only benefits individual learners, but also widens pool of commitment (3 months' discrete learning and supervision vs 2 years of oversight) 
• Don’t forget: junior doctors, advanced clinical practitioners and advanced nurse practitioners can act as DPPs 
• If the organisation doesn’t know what to do with a fully prescribing pharmacist workforce, this is a way to try something out  
• Workplace buy-in is crucial and expectations need to be clear from the outset that DPP contact time will need protecting 

Research and evaluation

Basic qualitative information is being gathered but would benefit from appropriate evaluative funding to understand the motivation of DPPs, utility of output for a general prescribing scope, and lessons to learn for MPharm blueprints when implementing prescribing training in undergraduates.

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