Department | TLA |
---|---|
Candidate Name | Amelia Elwell |
Mobile Phone | 07905124774 |
Email hidden; Javascript is required. | |
Grade | Band 7 |
Specialty | Pharmacist |
Please summarise your career over the last 3 years | I have worked between two trusts over the last three years, South Tyneside and Sunderland foundation Trust then the Queen Elizabeth I hospital in Gateshead. South Tyneside hospital is where I completed my pre-registration year then progressed into my band 6 role. For this role I was a rotational pharmacist working across care of the elderly, emergency admissions, respiratory, surgery, cardiology and endocrine with twice weekly dispensary slots. My role consisted of completing medicines reconciliation, reviewing and optimising medications, patient counselling and education, legally and accuracy checking medications and preparing discharge prescriptions. Other than the general ward/dispensary work in this role pharmacist looked after the in/outpatient warfarin service. I would dose inpatient warfarin alongside conducting a weekly warfarin clinic in a local GP practice. I also would counsel patients on medication through the cardiac rehabilitation service. I was on the oncall rota and late night rota from qualifying. |
Have you ever been disciplined, suspended, or are you currently under investigation by an NHS Trust, GPHC or other employer (including other agencies) – if yes, please give details | no |
Why have you chosen to register with The Locum Agency? * | I recently have returned from travelling and would like to work as a locum pharmacist until I have decided what area I would like to work in for a more permanent role. |
Tell me about a recent occasion when you were under pressure and handled it successfully. - What was the situation? - What actions did you take? - What was the outcome? | I was working on a Saturday in the dispensary. A pharmacist and a dispenser had called in sick so we were very short staffed and Saturdays are normally very busy. First thing in the morning 10 discharge prescriptions arrived in the dispensary all of which had not been signed by prescriber and the prescriptions contained errors and had no indication of what was needed from the prescription. At the same time one of the wards requested some phenobarbital which I then found had not come on the Friday order and we had no stock and two wards had requested dosette boxes for patients going home today. |
What is your understanding of the Medicines Act 1968? | This is our primary legislation governing all medications in the UK. This act divides medication into the following 3 categories: |
You are asked to prescribe medication which is not clearly documented within the patients notes and medical record. What should you do? | I would ask whoever was requesting that I prescribe the medication who this patient was and who has made the plan to start this medication. I would then find and ask this person the reasons for starting this and then ask them to document this clearly in the notes. I would then check for myself that it was appropriate to start this medication and they has no interacting drugs which would make co-prescribing dangerous and would check the observations and recent bloods. If I was satisfied with the above and the documentation I would prescribe the medication. |
What steps would you take, going forward if you become aware of an incident or complaint, which you were involved or implicated in? | I would first make sure I understand what this incident/complaint was and what my involvement was. I would then try to work out a timeline of what happened and bring this to my manager so I could discuss this with my senior. If this was an incident that had not been reported I would complete a datix and depending on the incident speak to the manager in charge of the area. If the incident involved for example a medication error after discussing this with the manager I would inform the doctor in charge of the patient and between ourselves decide who will speak with the patient/relative. Once resolved I would share the outcome of this with my peers to help to improve working practice and help to avoid this incident in the future. |
Please outline your understanding of Clinical Governance. | Clinical governance is a framework which sets out to ensure accountability of organisations to continually improve services, safeguarding and care. There are 7 pillars of clinical goverance: |
Thinking about a recent difficult situation you’ve had with patient’s relatives – How did you handle this and the outcome | A patient was admitted to hospital who was taking donepezil from the memory clinic although this medication does not show up on the GP record as at the time it was solely supplied from this clinic. Due to this there was an error in the medication history and prescribing of regular medications and it was unintentionally omitted for the first week of admission. I was covering a ward for the day when a nurse approached me asking me to investigate this issues as the relatives have called and are very upset that this has not been given. I read the patients note and had a chat to the doctor looking after this patient which confirmed that this was not intentionally stopped. I rang the family explaining what had happened and apologised for the failing of the hospital to prescribe this. I reassured the family that this medication has an effect in the longer term and having missed a week should not cause any great effect for the patient and I assure here I had now personally prescribed the medication and ensure it is on the ward so he would have his dose immediately. I then completed a datix to highlight the error to the wider team and presented the case to my pharmacy colleagues during our weekly meeting to ensure they are aware how to access the records of the memory hub and to remind them not to solely rely on GP record. |
Candidate Name | Amelia Elwell |
Candidate Signature | |
Date of Candidate Signature | 08/07/2024 |
Date of Interviewer Signature | 08/07/2024 |