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Training offers for pharmacists
Working with partners and stakeholders, we are offering fully-funded, innovative training and development opportunities for pharmacists.
Our training has been developed to support the development of clinical pharmacists ready to work across a range of healthcare settings, including primary care networks.
Learn more about these offers below:
The ability to independently prescribe is crucial for pharmacists delivering care across the NHS. Applications for fully funded training for 2024/25 are now open.
This training offer aims to support those involved in educational supervision roles, to ensure they are trained, competent and confident to provide support and developmental aid to the community pharmacy workforce.
Learner supervision is needed across the pharmacy professions, and this training offer will be available for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to support supervision to pharmacy professionals who work in a community pharmacy setting in England.
The training will be delivered flexibly to accommodate work schedules and will allow learners to develop their skills and knowledge around delivering educational supervision whilst keeping patient safety and person-centred care at the forefront.
The offer will be available to registered pharmacy professionals or independent prescribers, and is intended to support Educational Supervisors, Designated Supervisors and Designated Prescribing Practitioners.
To find out more and apply, visit the ProPharmace website.
The pathway consists of a tailored 12-month programme aimed at experienced pharmacists working in community mental health teams. The pathway aims to further develop pharmacists’ knowledge of; medicines optimisation, initiation and personalisation particularly of medication for patients with complex co-morbidities and will therefore have a key role in improving physical health outcomes for people with severe mental illness. The training pathway supports the journey to advanced level practice for pharmacists. Learn more.
This optional pathway is designed for learners across all sectors of pharmacy, to help you meet your development needs as you enter newly qualified practice. The pathway is intended to help you make the transition to more independent learning and acts as a stepping-stone towards enhanced and advanced practice.
This training is for pharmacists who are part of NHS England’s Clinical Pharmacists in General Practice Programme or recruited into post through the Primary Care Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (Primary Care Network Contract DES).
The 18-month workplace-based training programme provides you with the clinical skills you need to deliver person-centred care in line with the NHS Long Term Plan. Pharmacists accepted on the training pathway are expected to play an active part in the emerging primary care networks, working as part of a multi-professional team in a patient-facing role. This might be in a patient’s own home, in a care home, in a GP surgery, or at another community venue. Pharmacists who are part of the NHS England's Clinical Pharmacists in General Practice Programme are also expected to take part in an independent prescribing course. This is in addition to the 18-month pathway if they do not already have an IP qualification.
The training will equip you with the skills you need to succeed in your role: from undertaking structured medication reviews, improving medicine optimisation and safety, and supporting care homes, to running practice clinics.
The 18-month training pathway is delivered by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education.
Details of the separate independent prescribing courses can be found on the dedicated Independent Prescribing webpage.
The NHS extends a big thank you to those community pharmacists who have engaged with the CliniSkills training.
The range of training targeted hands-on clinical examination skills that are vital for community pharmacists to confidently assess patients’ clinical signs and symptoms when managing clinical cases routinely presenting to community pharmacies each day. A flexible and responsive on-line eLearning system has been successful in presenting key information in a way that can be interfaced with a busy working schedule. These principles were supported with the opportunity to undertake face to face training days, enabling hands-on practise and refinement of patient assessment techniques.
Material in on-line modules included structured history taking, dermatology, cardiology (segmented into the 5 key subjects), ENT and paediatrics, and focused on identifying red flags for referral and establishing those patients who can be managed appropriately in the community pharmacy using medications, self-care advice and safety netting information.
In this way the CliniSkills training programme has supported the clinical development of community pharmacists, which is key to the future delivery of expanding pharmaceutical care services in the community and in particular the successful delivery of the "pharmacy first" initiative.
We are now evaluating the detail of the successes of the training in terms of how community pharmacists were supported and developed and will release findings with our partner, Cliniskills; this evidence base will then be used to inform future developments.