Independent prescribers could qualify by the end of the year
Peter Wilson: Independent
prescribers could qualify by the end of the year |
Now that the curriculum for the education and training of independent prescribers has been endorsed by the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, independent prescribers could qualify by the end of the year.
The curriculum was presented at the August Council meeting on behalf
of the Society’s Education Committee by Peter Wilson, the Society’s
head of postgraduate learning and development.
In preparing the curriculum, the additional knowledge and skills required
for a supplementary prescriber to practice as an independent prescriber
were built into the existing supplementary prescribing curriculum. The
additional elements include: making a clinical assessment of a patient
with the condition that the pharmacist intends to treat; taking an accurate
drug history; making a general assessment of a patient to rule out additional
clinical problems and formulating a diagnosis.
Dr Wilson expects that it will be possible for universities to begin
conversion courses in this academic term, meaning that supplementary
prescribers could qualify as independent prescribers by the end of 2006.
In
a separate development, NHS Education for Scotland has produced new
online training materials for supplementary prescribers. The package,
known as SUPPORT (supplementary
prescribing for pharmacists online resources and training) includes policy
and legal aspects of supplementary prescribing, the psychology of prescribing,
evidence-based practice and the principles of monitoring. |
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Hospital Pharmacist