Faculty updates accreditation process The Faculty of Prescribing and Medicines Management was set up in March 2001 as a semi-autonomous professional body within the College of Pharmacy Practice (CPP). It provides professional support for pharmacists in the UK, from any professional background, who are interested in and/or working in the specialist area of prescribing and medicines management.
The faculty currently has over 500 members and the membership continues
to grow. Pharmacists join the faculty as associate members, and this
automatically confers associate membership of the College. Full member
status of the faculty (which also confers full membership of the College)
is attained through a process of accreditation whereby associate members
demonstrate that they are specialist practitioners in the field of prescribing
and medicines management.
Since the faculty is a relatively new body, no associates have yet progressed
to full member status. To agree the details of how the accreditation
process should be operated, a meeting of interested associate members
of the faculty was held in June 2003. As a result of this meeting and
consultation with a wider group of associate members, guidance notes
on the faculty and the accreditation process have now been developed.
These are available either on the Faculty website (www.collpharm.org.uk)
or as a hard copy (tel 024 7622 1359).
There are essentially four components to applying for membership and
these are summarised below:
Portfolio This should show clearly that the competencies and criteria
of the faculty and CPP have been met. Details are available on the faculty
and college websites.
The types of information that can be included are likely to come from
areas such as job descriptions, training events attended, annual reviews
or appraisals. Various templates have been developed to facilitate the
process of portfolio completion. Both a paper-based and an electronic
template are available from CPP.
Preparation of submission A submission is essentially a supporting statement
that summarises how the competencies and criteria, as detailed in the
portfolio, have been met.
Submission Submit portfolio and submission to the faculty
Interview At this interview, the application will be discussed with
two assessors. The assessors will normally be full members of the faculty
and one of them will usually be from the same area of practice as the
candidate, eg, community pharmacy or primary care.
To facilitate demand from the current associate membership, the first
set of interviews will be held in February 2003, with more in April and
October. Thereafter, it is likely that interviews will be held twice
a year.
For further information, please contact Brenda Bradley (bbradley@ehssb.n-i.nhs.uk or 028 9055 3784) or Annie Coppel (annie.coppel@npc.nhs.uk).
Benefits of joining the Faculty
of Prescribing and Medicines Management
• A framework of practice
competencies developed and agreed by
the membership, to help develop individuals’ roles and
abilities in this area
• Recognised accreditation as a specialist practitioner (ie,
member status) in this area when professional achievements
of competence,
expertise and excellence against faculty competencies are demonstrated
• Recognition of a personal voluntary commitment to CPD
• College and faculty newsletters
• Peer recognition and support
• Access to a tailored education and training programmes, designed
specifically to support individual’s CPD and progress towards
specialist practitioner accreditation (ie, member status)
• Regular communication with, and support through, a network of peers
working and/or interested in this specialist area of practice
• Access to experts in this specialist area of practice
• Opportunities to influence national strategy through responses
to consultations co-ordinated by the faculty on behalf of its membership
• Support and promotion of targeted research and development in this
area
• Access to an electronic discussion group |
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