Meetings

College of Pharmacy Practice

Services offered by the College of Pharmacy Practice were outlined at a recent celebratory Conference. Steven Kayne reports

The College of Pharmacy Practice silver jubilee conference took place in London on 20 June

College of Pharmacy Practice lays out its stall at silver jubilee conference

Amy Lepiorz

Amy Lepiorz, BPSA education officer, who is the college’s first student associate member

Annual general meeting

At the annual general meeting, the chief executive Ian Simpson reported that the college had continued to support the professional and personal development of all pharmacists and their staff during the past year.

It had also responded to a large number of consultative documents as well as accrediting an increasing number of events. A loss of £36,000 in the annual accounts was recorded for the year ending 31 December 2005. Members were told by the treasurer that this was due to a combination of falling revenue and increased costs, but that necessary steps were being taken to reduce reliance on reserves in the immediate future.

The Bryan Veitch award for outstanding service to the college was awarded to Chris Barrett and a number of membership and emeritus membership certificates were presented. The latter was a new category for members who had retired from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Register.

Introducing the conference, Charles Butler, chairman of the College of Pharmacy Practice governors, said that the silver jubilee was a good occasion on which to relaunch the college, demonstrate its adaptability in a rapidly changing environment and move forward with vigour and vitality. He was particularly pleased that a new student associate membership category had been established and he welcomed the first recipient, Amy Lepiorz, the British Pharmaceutical Students Association education officer.

David Morgan, CPP vice-chairman, said the afternoon session of the conference would demonstrate clearly the many benefits of college membership. There was a need to learn from the past but at the same time the college must not eschew future challenges and opportunities. Mr Morgan introduced a series of short presentations by members detailing the services offered by the college.

Career progression

Janet Krska, of Liverpool John Moores University, outlined how the college could assist in career progression by guiding colleagues through the membership, advanced membership and fellowship levels of personal development.

Professor Krska cited the Scottish Vocational Training Scheme as an example of a link between the college and career progression and pointed out that her university accepts college members onto its MSc in clinical pharmacy course, providing exemption from the diploma and accrediting 120 credits of prior learning. Aston University also offers a variety of MSc options for college members.

Practice-based research

In a second presentation, Professor Krska said the CPP research committee, of which she was chairman, sought to create an environment supportive of research in line with the college’s aims and members’ needs. One of the committee’s specific objectives was to develop study days on research skills and on accessing and using research in practice.

Regional facilitators

Alison Littlewood said that the network of 16 regional tutors performed three main roles:

· Generating interest in becoming an associate from preregistration trainees and registered pharmacists

· Assisting associates in preparing for the “membership by practice” submission by providing or signposting mentorship support

· Stimulating college members and others to further their continuing professional development, their continuing education and their interest in improving their skills

Mrs Littlewood said that she was delighted the college had allocated funds in the current budget to strengthen and localise the role of facilitator network.

Mentorship

Karen Acott explained that a mentor was a personal facilitator who listens, encourages, challenges and questions to ensure a mentee is empowered to achieve an identified goal. There are a number of benefits to being mentored, she said. These included confidence building, guidance and support, constructive feedback, impartial ideas, personal support to clarify direction and opportunities to reflect and learn from others. Ms Acott identified three processes involved in mentoring:

· Membership accreditation support

· Specific peer support, eg, new roles

· Holistic personal development, eg, career review and advancement

Revalidation

Gillian Hawksworth said that the college had clearly identified revalidation as a top priority for future planning of its activities and it will move forward to use the expertise within its membership as soon as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society standards are developed. She told the audience that initial plans involved the preparation of resources to support revalidation of CPP members and mentoring through regional facilitators as with CPD.

CPD support

Ian Simpson explained that CPD support was achieved through accreditation, facilitation and certification. He said the college had recently changed the basis of accrediting courses from an hourly tariff to a criterion based on the Society’s competency framework. Facilitation was achieved through the regional network and evidence of participation in CPD provided to members by certification. Members could give permission for their Society CPD records to be viewed by the college so there was no duplication of effort.

Co-operation with other bodies

Bodies with which the college had close links include the BPSA and the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education. Mr Morgan introduced Chris Cutts, director of the CPPE, and Gautam Paul, president of the BPSA, who explained how the college could complement their own CPD programmes.