Tenders are sought for “simulated patient” research
Working with the National Pharmacy Association, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has issued an invitation to researchers to tender for a pilot study using undercover “simulated patients” to support community pharmacists to give safe and appropriate advice when supplying over-the-counter medicines. Funding of up to £20,000 is available to support the study.
The aim of the “simulated patient with feedback” project
will be to use interactive interventions to identify pharmacists’ training
and personal development needs. The project will also assess whether
the simulated patient approach is suited to research in community pharmacy.
The Society and NPA hope to show that the simulated patient approach
can be used as part of an educational strategy to enhance pharmacists’ counselling
skills. The aim will be to identify shortcomings in pharmacy behaviour
and advice, and to provide direct, personal, confidential and immediate
feedback to the pharmacist to inform improvement.
The Society emphasises that the project is concerned not with fitness
to practise but with quality improvement. The simulated patients will
only visit pharmacies that have signed up to take part in the project
and will advise the pharmacist that a visit will occur within a specific
time frame.
The simulated patient, who will not be known to the pharmacist or pharmacy
staff, will enact a specified scenario on a visit, accepting any advice
given and making a purchase if recommended. The simulated patient will
then provide immediate feedback to the pharmacist in a structured manner.
It will relate to how well the pharmacist and the pharmacy staff performed
and will cover both soft skills such as communication and empathy and
the provision of factual information. It will also address ways of improving
performance.
A written report will be sent to the project manager and copied to the
pharmacy. All findings about individual performance will be anonymised
before the results are analysed for the overall evaluation of the pilot.
If the pilot demonstrates the benefits of the approach, the Society and
NPA expect to scale up to a larger beta pilot, with a control group,
to examine more closely the potential for influencing pharmacist’s
behaviour through the “simulated patient with feedback” approach.
The Society’s head of quality improvement, Heidi Wright, said: “This
project is about improving the quality of the services offered by the
pharmacy profession. It will focus on providing feedback to the pharmacist
around their knowledge, skills and attitude in a supportive and facilitative
manner. The aim is to determine, in the first instance, whether or not
the methodology works.”
Colette McCreedy, director of pharmacy practice, NPA, said: “The
NPA welcomes the opportunity to work with the Society on this important
initiative. We know from studies in other countries that the ‘simulated
patient’ concept has been found by community pharmacists to be
a useful and constructive way of improving the quality of services. We
now need to see first hand if this approach works for our members and
how effective it could be as a quality improvement tool.”
Tendering to undertake
the “simulated patient” pilot
project
Researchers interested in tendering for the
project can obtain an application form and other information
from the Society’s head
of quality improvement, Heidi Wright (tel 020 7572 2602; e-mail heidi.wright@rpsgb.org).
The full call for proposals can be accessed from the patient
care page of the Society’s website or from the
NPA website (www.npa.co.uk).
Tenders should be submitted by 24 April.
All applications will be assessed by a panel of referees with relevant
experience. Interviews will be held in July. The final decision
will be made by a review group jointly established by the Society
and
the NPA.
The project will be expected to start in September and to last
for four to six weeks. The Society and NPA would expect the final
report
to be published early in December.
The successful applicant will be expected to develop a single symptom-based
scenario (with guidance from the Society and NPA). The scenario
should entail the sale of a pharmacy medicine, to ensure involvement
of
the pharmacist, and should concentrate on safe minimum standards
rather than “perfect” intervention.
The chosen applicant will also need to develop the structured feedback
session for pharmacists, to recruit and train the simulated patients
and to evaluate the study. Evaluation will include holding a focus
group meeting for participating pharmacists to establish their
views and perceptions of the process and to assess the acceptability
of
remediation training.
Applicants are also asked to provide potential costings for rolling
out the project across England (in the first instance) and for
providing remedial training if required. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal