A new opportunity is being made available for community pharmacists to get involved with pharmaceutical care.
The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) and the Scottish Centre for Post Qualification Pharmaceutical Education (SCPPE) are collaborating to provide a pharmaceutical care training programme "for developing local practice leaders."
The programme involves a five-day residential course, split into two periods with a five-week intervening period during which participants complete practical assignments.
"The emphasis will be the provision of education which facilitates development of pharmaceutical care expertise and practice at a local level," the organisers say. They hope to enrol around 20 pharmacists for the course. "We want individuals to enrol on the programme who are prepared at least to try to change their practice, ie, have a go," said Mr Rob Swallow (assistant director for education development, CPPE), a member of the course planning team.
The two residential blocks of the course will be held in York from October 1 to 4 and November 12 to 14.
The organisers say that the central theme of the course is to encourage community pharmacists to reflect on relevant local opportunities and to explore ways of developing "rigorous but practical" systems of optimising medicines-related patient care. "Participants will build on existing knowledge and expertise to acquire the skills of using structured pharmaceutical care plans to meet the needs of individual patients," they say.
Course participants will be eligible for free accommodation and meals, and financial assistance towards travel costs and locum fees.
To launch the scheme, two repeated evening meetings are being held later this month at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's headquarters in Edinburgh (June 22) and London (June 27). The meetings will include an overview of the course. There will also be an address by Professor Douglas Hepler (University of Florida, and visiting professor at the University of Manchester), one of the originators of the concept of pharmaceutical care, who has been helping with the development of the course.
Any pharmacist who is thinking about applying to go on the residential course is encouraged to attend one of the launch meetings. The organisers ask pharmacists who wish to attend the meeting to contact the CPPE or SCPPE offices.
Application packs for the residential course will be available at the launch meetings and, after the meetings, from CPPE and SCPPE.
The planning team for the course is Mr Swallow and Ms Rose Marie Parr (director, SCPPE), Professor Steve Hudson (professor of pharmaceutical care, University of Strathclyde) and Ms Judy Cantrill (clinical senior lecturer, school of pharmacy, University of Manchester).