Band 8a Specialist Pharmacist Prescriber

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Weekends, BHs and on-call)

We are looking for a motivated, dynamic, and innovative individual, with a strong background in mental health pharmacy, to deliver a clinical pharmacy service to community mental health teams in the Bristol locality of the Trust. 

The successful candidate will ideally be a non-medical prescriber, eager to advance their clinical and leadership skills further. The role will include a dedicated prescribing clinic, and the postholder will hold their own caseload of service users. The scope of practice and location for this will be agreed, dependent on service requirements and candidate experience.

To support Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation in senior health and care roles, AWP is developing a positive action plan to ensure the widest and most diverse field of talent; so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people with a BAME background.

PS: Base will be confirmed on appointment

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist pharmaceutical expertise to multidisciplinary teams and answer medicines information enquiries appropriate to the level of the post which will involve literature searches and the production of oral and written responses.

Be responsible for clinically assessing service users, establishing a diagnosis and the clinical management required – prescribing or de-prescribing where necessary, as specified in a ‘scope of practice plan’, agreed with the line manager and medical supervisor.

Work as an independent non-medical prescriber within their scope of competence and in accordance with Trust policy, procedures and other evidence based guidance, taking full responsibility for the service user as well as the medicine prescribed.

Provide mental health specific advice and support to ICB Prescribing Advisers; primary healthcare professionals including GPs, pharmacists, dentists and consultants.

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role will be based at community team bases in Bristol. Travel to other AWP locations and primary care sites will be required for meetings and training.  

Please see job description for full details of key result areas. 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Masters or equivalent degree in pharmacy, approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC).
• Current GPhC registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Post-graduate qualification in clinical or mental health pharmacy (diploma or MSc) or willing to undertake this qualification.
• Pharmacist Prescriber qualification.
• Credentialed member of CMHP.

Desirable criteria

• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
• Willingness to undertake the Advanced Clinical Practitioner qualification.

Experience/Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Significant UK hospital pharmacy experience.
• Significant experience of working in specialist mental health inpatient and community settings.
• Knowledge of the pharmacological treatment options for different mental health conditions.
• Understanding of MHA and MCA.

Desirable criteria

• Experienced in writing guidelines and reports.
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of multi professional team working and an ability to promote the role of the non-medical prescribing pharmacist within it.
• Experience of HR and management skills.
• Experience and training in carrying out clinical audit.
• Experience of educating and training of others.

Skills and abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to access, review and process complex clinical information from appropriate sources.
• Ability to manage own time and workload and prioritise clinical work.

Desirable criteria

Competent with standard information technology and associated tools.

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with ‘lived-experience’ of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,– we are a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Please apply to join us, we would love to hear from you. Any personal details you supply to us are kept safe in line with the General Data Protection Regulations. 

Adverts normally close for application a few minutes before midnight on the closing date and we will let you know if we are offering you an interview by email via our recruitment system ‘TRAC’. We contact all applicants within 4 weeks after the closing date, so please check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application; you are welcome to contact us, via the TRAC system, if you have any queries about your application.