Insight from Yasmin Sultan
31st January 2020
Time in general practice
Qualifications
MPharm
Current Role
Pre-registration pharmacist
- Best thing about being a pharmacist in GP practice: definitely the patient-facing aspect!
- Worst thing about being a pharmacist in GP practice: I haven’t come across anything yet!
My life before becoming a pharmacist in GP Practice
My name is Yasmin, I completed my MPharm degree at a university in London and throughout my 4 years, I wasn’t entirely sure which sector of Pharmacy I was interested in working in… to be honest, I wasn’t even aware that general practice (GP) was an option for Pharmacists.
Undergraduate placements for me were usually based at either at a large teaching hospital (attempting taking a drug history from an inpatient), or at a community pharmacy (dispensing or familiarising myself with the company SOPs).
GP Practice experience
Fast-forward to my training/pre-registration (pre-reg) year: a multi-sector placement equally split in Community, Hospital and GP pharmacy. This sort of pre-reg is rare, so I did not know what to anticipate going into the GP setting.
I spent my first few weeks shadowing all the types of staff in the GP practice, from receptionists, to nurses, to the GPs and the practice Pharmacist. What I saw was that each role was entirely different, yet so coherent. As cliché as it may sound, every member of staff relied on one another to run the services of a GP surgery. Their workloads depended on everyone doing their roles that ultimately relieved a pressure in a busy, time-constrained clinical environment.
Key examples of personal challenges of practice pharmacy – what were they and how did you overcome them? (including skills, knowledge and training)
Challenge #1
Knowing how to carry out an effective consultation and document the consultation effectively as a practice pharmacist
Solution
As an individual, I thoroughly enjoy the patient-facing aspect of pharmacy (and appreciate community pharmacy), so I began to look for ways to work on consultation skills and what documentation entails in General Practice. This ranged from completing assessments to getting an insight from registered pharmacists, speaking to my colleagues in the GP surgery as well as fellow pre-reg pharmacists based in GP.
Challenge #2
Seeing patients in clinic with supervision and applying my learnings from observing other HCPs in general practice
Solution
After sitting in on the GP/nurse/HCA/pharmacist consultations, I led some whilst the healthcare professional running the clinic or consultation sat in with me, later feeding back to me points that I can improve on or what went well during the consultation. I found that when I introduced myself as the trainee pharmacist, patients remained engaged with me and throughout the consultation. Being undermined in the GP setting was something that I was wary of, but thankfully have not experienced. Additionally, I would be in contact with local community pharmacies or healthcare professionals working in secondary care with queries related to patients’ medications.
What are your current priorities / key areas of focus?
To pass my pre-reg successfully!
How have you demonstrated impact and value in your practice?
My role started off as helping with the admin-side of GP practice. I looked at patient groups on specific medications and if their condition was being monitored as necessary, dealing with medication requests from patients and community pharmacies and either submitting the request to my practice pharmacist supervisor to further screen, or if I had a query, then to further look into. I also practiced ‘medicine reconciliation’, essentially fake-screening patient’s discharge letters from hospitals and identifying if medications were stopped, started, changed or continued following the patient’s hospitalisation and then discussing my findings with the practice pharmacist who would then do the real deal. I was able to support the pharmacist with their workload in the practice and add value by reducing their time taken to undertake their activities.
What development do I need / am I undertaking at this point in my journey?
With my pre-reg spectacles on, I was most focused on how the practice pharmacist’s role fit in to this multi-disciplinary team. Was the work admin-based? Or was it patient-facing? Would the GP pharmacist mainly be dealing with the local community pharmacies? Most importantly, how would I, a trainee pharmacist, fit into all of this?!
What skills or competencies do you feel are important to have in your role as a practice pharmacist?
The answers to my questions going into general practice can be answered now that I have reflected on the first half of my pre-reg:
- The practice pharmacist definitely has to define the responsibilities for themselves, appropriate for the surgery that they are working in. No amount of Google searches can give a standardised role for GP pharmacists.
- The trainee pharmacist needs to be willing to be pro-active to find opportunities that they can learn as pre-reg pharmacists and potentially practice as this will help ease the individual into a future GP pharmacist role. It is just as important to be willing learn from any member of the GP team.
What has been your perception of the i2i Network?
Insightful blogs for pharmacy professionals to read, but it is not limited to pharmacists. Pre-registration pharmacists should be encouraged to read these blogs to get an idea of what practicing in a GP surgery may look like, and hopefully it sparks some curiosity in them for their own careers!
I wish someone had told me………
I was introduced to the GP Pharmacist role in the NHS Long Term Plan and began to search the internet for information about the role, responsibilities, specific skills needed, salary (you name it, chances are that I searched for it) but could not find definitive answers. The role varied from surgery to surgery, area, NHS band, knowledge or extra diplomas required. I wish that I had more guidance and that there was more information about the role out there!