I have worked as a clinical pharmacist in York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital from August 2017-November 2022 as a clinical pharmacist. I worked in oncology, acute medicine and surgery. I was also a staff governor.

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Recommended by a colleague

In my previous job I was under pressure to cover 3 wards and do my dispensary slot. I was given 2 hours to finish all my wards. It was a stressful situation because the wards were very busy, a mix of medicine and surgery and I was under pressure to finish quickly as the person in the dispensary was waiting for me to finish so that she /he could quickly handover and then do their wards too. I decided to speak to my line manager as I was not getting job satisfaction and felt that I was not finishing all my tasks. She gave me great hints and tips, as result I would print the ward handover first thing in the morning, prioritize and highlight who was going home first and do their take home medication. I will also check who needed critical time medication such as Parkinson meds and insulin and get those to the wards asap, lastly I would review patients who had been on the ward for a few days. To summarise I will be prioritizing my work, I will also get help from the technician to do a medicines reconciliation or quickly supply time critical medicines once I had validated them. As a result of working well with the technician, prioritising workload based on clinical need, I was able to finish my wards on time. This gave me great job satisfaction and better rapport with my colleagues

Under the Medicines Act 1968, a pharmacy must be registered for POMs to be supplied which must be under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. The act also regulates the supply of P and GSL medicines. GSL medicines can be sold by any shop not just a pharmacy. P meds can only be sold by a registered pharmacy but can be bought without a prescription. The medicines act controls all aspects of medicines from manufacturing, monitoring such as the yellow card scheme to supply in the UK for both human and veterinary use.

I will need to get to the bottom of the situation to find out who , what and why the medication has been requested. Under no circumstances can a POM be given without a valid and signed prescription by an authorised prescriber. I will speak to the patient as from my experience the patient knows a lot about their medical condition as they live with it, depending on the sources available I will check the notes, PODs, PMR, GP record, dispensing record. I will also ask to speak to the doctor and nurse looking after the patient if available. Once I have made my findings and satisfied that it is clinically justified, the patient needs it, I will refer to the appropriate doctor with my findings to prescribe. I will also document this in the notes. I am not a prescriber yet and if I could it will have to be within my area of competence and expertise.

I will speak to my line manager and follow the complaints procedure. I will also make sure I have documented the incident, circumstances, dates and time ready to be submitted as required

It is a framework for continuously improving the quality of services by creating an environment by which excellence and high standards of care is continuously safeguarded. It is a continuous process. It comprises of
-education and training
-clinical audit
-clinical effectiveness
-search and development
-openness
-risk management

Whilst on the ward doing a medicine's reconciliation for a patient I came across some unidentifiable pills in a patient's own dosette. As I was not able to identify them I told the patient that it could not be given by the nurses here as they could not identify it and we would have to supply the medication or if there was the original packet from where it came from then the nurses could give it. The patient asked the partner to bring the original packet from home but at this point the partner's mood changed, she started to become unpleasant towards me. In addition she was saying that I was been difficult by not allowing the nurses to use the unidentifiable pills and now her partner will have no medicines while in hospital as I did not accept what they brought. At this point, I remained calm and maintained appropriate eye contact. After listening to the patient's concern I explained to the patient's relative whilst avoiding jargon that it was not a problem and the patient will not go without any prescribed medication following my medicines reconciliation or any ongoing treatment that will be required. I acknowledged how the patient's relative felt and apologised explaining that it was our policy that if tablets are non identifiable, for the patient's safety the nurse cannot give it. The only time a patient can take their own medication is if a risk assessment is performed and the patient is deemed competent to take his own meds. This must be documented in the notes and the patient has to sign. I informed them that this was our policy. The patient's relative stated that she now understood and was worried that her partner will not get his medication. The mood changed to positive, once I supplied all the meds following my medicine reconciliation, both the patient and partner thanked me for my help.