Specialist Rotational Clinical Pharmacist
Are you an ambitious clinical pharmacist looking to take the next step in your career?
Whether you are a Band 6 pharmacist nearing completion of the first year of your clinical diploma or an experienced Band 7 pharmacist seeking to broaden your specialist knowledge, this rotational programme offers an exceptional opportunity to develop your clinical expertise within one of the UK’s largest teaching hospitals.
At North Bristol NHS Trust, our Band 7 Specialist Rotational Clinical Pharmacist programme is designed to support pharmacists in building advanced clinical, leadership and service development skills across a diverse range of specialties. Each rotation lasts six months, allowing you to gain meaningful experience, develop specialist knowledge and contribute to service improvement initiatives while working alongside highly experienced multidisciplinary teams.
Rotations are available across a wide range of clinical services, including:
- Critical Care and Surgery
- Technical Services
- Neurosciences
- Same Day Emergency Care
- Acute Medicine and Frailty
- Infectious Diseases
- NHS@Home
- General Medicine
- HIV
- Respiratory Medicine
- Palliative Care
- Renal Medicine
- Elective Orthopaedic Surgery
- Pharmacoeconomics and ICB
Through our strong partnerships with the Integrated Care Board (ICB), we are also able to offer a unique Pharmacoeconomics and ICB rotation, providing valuable insight into medicines optimisation and healthcare commissioning.
Main duties of the job
This is an exciting opportunity to develop a diverse portfolio of clinical, leadership and service development experience while helping to deliver outstanding patient care.
As a Specialist Rotational Clinical Pharmacist, you will:
- Deliver specialist clinical pharmacy services to inpatients and outpatients across a variety of clinical specialties.
- Work as an integral member of multidisciplinary teams to optimise patient care and medicines use.
- Support lead specialist pharmacists in the delivery and development of pharmacy services.
- Contribute to medicines optimisation, antimicrobial stewardship and quality improvement initiatives.
- Provide expert medicines information and advice to patients, carers and healthcare professionals.
- Support the education and development of trainee pharmacists, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and students.
- Participate in service development projects and contribute to policy, guideline and pathway development.
- Contribute to the pharmacy weekend, late night and on‑call services.
We are a large pharmacy department with over 80 pharmacists including many highly specialist posts, pharmacist‑lead clinics, independent prescribers and consultant pharmacists. The clinical ward pharmacy service is well established and provided by clinical pharmacists and medicine management technicians. The pharmacy department is located in the Brunel building, which is a state‑of‑the‑art modern hospital opened in 2014.
About us
North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award‑winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.
We commit to treating each patient as an individual with respect and dignity, aiming to deliver excellent clinical outcomes and a first‑class experience for everyone who uses our services.
North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti‑discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all under‑represented groups.
Job responsibilities
- In conjunction with the senior clinical pharmacists provide and develop a specialist pharmaceutical service within North Bristol NHS Trust aligned to the Trust Values.
- Deliver specific improvements in the management of patients medication to facilitate the discharge process by utilising ward‑based discharges and communication with healthcare colleagues in Primary care with the overall aim to reduce length of patient stays.
- Work closely with the clinical site and Trust operational teams to ensure clear communications about daily patient flow issues.
- Clinically screen prescriptions to ensure the safe, efficient, evidence‑based, and rational use of medicines in line with the Trust Formulary and departmental policies so that risks to patients are minimised
- Challenge inappropriate prescribing and escrow as appropriate.
- Support and promote antimicrobial stewardship
- Advise on strategies to ensure cost‑effective use of resources and be involved with achieving CIP targets. In addition, feedback to prescribers.
- Support attainment of medicines related CQUIN and other targets as appropriate
- Ensure that an accurate medication history is obtained for each patient using the appropriate sources (GP, community pharmacist, patient/carer, clinic notes, nursing home)
- Provide advice and information to patients/carers to ensure compliance with treatment
- Work closely with the GPs/community pharmacists where necessary to ensure timely and seamless discharge of patients.
- Provide professional supervision to Patients Services on a sessional basis and be the responsible pharmacist when needed
- Record clinical Pharmacy activity in line with departmental procedures.
- Record interventions in line with departmental procedures.
- Record and investigate incidents in line with Trust procedures.
- Audit and risk manage selected areas of practice to promote continuous quality improvement as required by the directorate, Pharmacy department or the Trust.
- Maintain medicines management systems in conjunction with patients/carers, ward staff and pharmacy staff. Supervise medicines management technicians and/or other dedicated pharmacy staff
- Contribute to the training of pharmacy undergraduates, medical students, trainee pharmacists, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and medical and nursing staff as appropriate. Train clinical pharmacy diploma students on aspects of rotational specialties
- Supervise medicines management technicians and/or other dedicated pharmacy staff as required.
- Ensure that all procedures are adhered to, reviewed regularly and that all necessary records are completed.
- Update / prepare medication‑related policies, protocols and pathways used within rotational specialties.
- Support the Formulary team with new drug requests and shared care protocols where required.
- Support the Pharmacoeconomics team with horizon scanning, monitoring to ensure adherence to NICE guidance, and ensuring appropriate funding is in place for high‑cost medication.
- Keep up to date with developments in Pharmacy in order to maintain a high level of professional knowledge and competence. Attend study days and courses as necessary for the development of the service and the individual. Maintain a record of Continuing Professional Development.
- Provide accurate medicines information to nurses, doctors and patients.
- Attend multidisciplinary meetings and specialty‑specific meetings as required.
- Participate in on call (emergency duty) out of hours service support to junior pharmacists as required. If staffing levels dictate, contributing to the main pharmacy on‑call rota will be required.
Person Specification
Education/training/qualifications
- Professional knowledge acquired through vocational master’s degree in Pharmacy (4 years) or equivalent
- 1 year trainee pharmacist placement
- Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Society
- Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Certificate or equivalent
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development
- Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Diploma or other recognised postgraduate qualification to a similar standard
- Experience as a Band 6 hospital pharmacist
- Experience of audit and quality systems
- Hospital pharmacy experience in different clinical specialties
knowledge/skills/abilities
- Able to manage time and prioritise effectively
- Communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with pharmacy staff, hospital staff and patients/carers
- Ability to problem solve at a level appropriate to the post
- Proactive approach to the application of pharmaceutical knowledge in order to enhance patient care
- Ability to review, process and present complex information in a clear and concise manner in a variety of formats
- Adaptable and flexible approach to work
- Able to work under own initiative and as part of a team
- Teaching / tutorial and clinical supervisory skills
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Principal Pharmacist; Urgent and Emergency Care
£49,387 to £56,515 a year per annum, pro rata for part time
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Full‑time
Reference number
339‑CCS7505‑BAL
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