How we're incorporating quality improvements in pharmacy practice

Nargis Gulzar is one of the foundation pharmacy training programme facilitators in the Midlands.

Just before joining HEE 10 weeks ago, Nargis was approached by the editor of The Pharmaceutical Journal inviting her to write a learning article on quality improvement (QI).

The article, Quality improvement in pharmacy practice, offers an overview of the QI improvement philosophy, common methods, tools and the approaches used, showing how QI can continuously improve practice. It is primarily aimed at pharmacists but is applicable to all healthcare professionals.

The invite came on the back of projects Nargis and her colleagues completed while at Leicester’s De Montfort University, as a result of which the following articles were published:

• Engaging community pharmacists in quality improvement (QI): a qualitative case study of a partnership between a Higher Education Institute and Local Pharmaceutical Committees
• Quality improvement in community pharmacy: a qualitative investigation of the impact of a postgraduate quality improvement educational module on pharmacists understanding and practice

HEE is incorporating QI into our pharmacy foundation programme to enable and equip the Midlands pharmacy foundation trainees to improve service delivery to ultimately deliver better patient outcomes.

As a foundation pharmacy training programme facilitator, Nargis is involved in the training and development of the next generation of pharmacists. The trainee pharmacists started in August and Nargis is already impressed by their enthusiasm and drive for developing themselves and improving patient care.