Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Practicing at a Highly Advanced level in a specialism within the directorate, our directorate lead role balances leadership and clinical practice to deliver compassionate excellence. Reporting to the Divisional Lead Pharmacist, they maintain a key relationship between their clinical directorate and the pharmacy directorate to ensure good medicine management and the delivery of patient focussed medicines optimisation.

The Directorate Lead Pharmacists act as role models in terms of Trust values and behaviours as well as clinical expertise. The post-holder will lead, develop, deliver, evaluate and be responsible for delivering a comprehensive pharmacy service and medicines optimisation advice to the directorate.

The T&O directorate includes Trauma (JR site), Orthopaedics (Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre - NOC site) and Rheumatology (NOC site) and the role includes line management an expanding team of pharmacists responsible for day to day clinical cover for these areas.

The postholder will provide operational oversight to pharmacy services on the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre site, and across the T&O directorate as a whole. The post holder’s role within these specialities includes to:

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

Direct Patient Care

1. Deliver compassionate excellence via a patient focused clinical pharmacy service, in accordance with national medicines optimisation principles and local clinical pharmacy procedures.
2. Analyse prescriptions, alongside technical resources, patient records and information from patient consults to form an opinion on the most appropriate course of action.
3. Accurately and sensitively communicate medicines related information to a variety of healthcare professionals and patients including those with language difficulties, physical or mental disabilities, in a way that facilitates shared decision making.
4. Optimise transfer of patient care, though timely completion of medicines reconciliation and communication with GPs and community pharmacy teams.
5. Participate in and promote antimicrobial stewardship, medicines safety, and medicines effectiveness initiatives.
6. Support others with highly specialised advice and guidance on patient management in areas where evidence base is lacking or opinions are conflicting.
7. Demonstrate an advanced level of clinical reasoning and judement.
8. Train to become a NMP and when registered with the GPhC and the OUH, prescribe within the Trust’s policy for Non-medical Prescribing.
9. Within your own area of specialism independently manage patients, this may be via case referrals, outpatient or ambulatory review, or as part of a multidisciplinary ward round or MDT meeting.
10. Support medicines optimisation for patients within the specialism across a whole system e.g. primary to secondary care within the ICB, or across a wider geography where teriary services are provided.
11. Support OUH dispensaries, and liaise with external agencies (Such as aseptic production services or homecare providers) to ensure safe, timely and appropriate supply of medications to patients.
12. Take responsibility for the assessment of financial and clinical risk of use of unlicensed medicines, balancing this with the clinical situation posed.

Supporting Professional Activities

Leadership and Management

1. Act as a role model for pharmacy within the Trust, demonstrating the GPhC Standards for Pharmacy Professionals and our Trust values.
2. Be recongised as an ICB, regional, National or international expert within your specialist field.
3. Support and promote the Trusts equality, diversity and inclusion principles.
4. Plan and organise your own workload in alignment with professional and organisational priorities. Support others to do the same. Delegate and escalate appropriately.
5. Accept professional accountability for all actions and advice.
6. Report any unexpected or untoward events via the Trusts incident reporting system
7. Lead, manage, motivate and develop pharmacy staff within your team.
8. Line manage all designated staff in line with the Trust’s HR policies and procedures, providing annual appraisal
9. Participate in annual job planning and complete this for those you line manage.
10. Lead on the recruitment, deployment and retention of colleagues within the Directorate.
11. Plan and authorise rosters for your team, managing planned and unplanned leave as well as adhoc cover.
12. Ensure a high quality, responsive, patient focussed clinical pharmacy service is provided by clinical pharmacists and ward-based technicians and assistants to all agreed areas within the Directorate.
13. Actively promote the clinical pharmacy service and share achievements locally, regionally and nationally.
14. Use experience and clinical judgement to assist in problem-solving and trouble-shooting within the clinical service and Pharmacy department.
15. Ensure appropriate representation from your directorate at relevant Pharmacy directorate meetings as appropriate e.g. Home Care User Group, High Cost Medicines Group, Pharmacy Systems Optimisation, Governance,
16. Ensure effective communication within the directorate pharmacy team, to the wider Pharmacy directorate and with your Divisional and Directorate leadership teams.
17. Contiribute to the development and delivery of of Pharmacy Clinical Team Key Performance Indicators.
18. Provide advice and guidance to the directorate on all aspects of medicines optimisation.
19. Ensure compliance with medicines legislation and Trust policies and procedures.
20. Anticipate and respond to clinical and business needs of the directorate.
21. Contribute to business cases, identify and advise on any impact to the clinical and operational aspects of pharmacy services.
22. Consider the environmental impact of changes, and work to reduce the carbon footprint from medicines use within the directorate.
23. Support investigation and resolution of medication related incidents and complaints in the directorate.
24. Support your teams in developing, implementing and monitoring Medicines Management policies and procedures, including MILs and injectable monographs.
25. Be responsible for the interpretation and dissemination of drug usage and costs data to the directorate to support management of the drug budget.
26. Support the introduction of new medicines to the directorate, by contributing to submissions to the Medicines Management and Therapeutics Committee (MMTC), Area Prescribing Committee, and Thames Valley Priorities Committee.
27. In appropriate situations deputise for the Divisional Lead Pharmacist or Associate Director of Pharmacy (Clinical Services) as required
28. Take on any additional specific roles as agreed with the Divisional Lead Pharmacist, in the process of one to ones, appraisal or job planning.
29. Take on any additional specific roles as agreed with the Associate Director of Pharmacy (Clinical Services) or Clinical Director for Pharmacy and Sterile Services, on behalf of the Directorate, Division, or Trust.

Research and Improvement

1. Participate in, support, and supervise Audits, Service evaluation and Quality/Cost Improvement Projects that align to our strategy and support our culture of continuous improvement.
2. Support the appropriate use of management of clinical trials medicines and unlicensed medicines within the Directorate, in accordance with national and Trust policy.
3. Develop personal practice research in accordance with the Trust and pharmacy strategy.

Training and Development

1. Complete a local induction programme, including core training and maintain core skills throughout employment.
2. Seek feedback and participate in annual appraisal process.
3. Be aware of developments within own area of practice, the wider directorate and Pharmacy/ Medicines Management in general.
4. Develop recognition as a regional/national expert within your speciality, using the RPS Faculty or equivalent processes where appropriate
5. Once meeting the requirements to act as a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP), fulfil this role to continue to develop pharmacists within your team.
6. Provide specialised professional and technical education at a professional, under-graduate, or postgraduate level and at a level that patient/carers can understand in both inpatient and outpatient clinical environments across the primary and secondary care settings.
7. Support colleagues within your team to be aware of practice changes and developments. Encourage expertise in their area of specialist practice, and to share exemplary practice by acting as a resource.
8. Facilitate members of your team tutoring and support the training of trainee foundation pharmacists and technicians, those completing the postgraduate diploma and those undertaking independent prescribing qualifications.