By Emma Thompson, Clinical Pharmacist, supported by NES as a Training provider in Scotland and credentialed by RPS

I began my career as a pharmacist at Inverclyde Royal Hospital where I enrolled on the Post Registration Foundation Pharmacist programme. From the get-go, I undertook supervised learning events (SLEs), initially with senior pharmacists within my team as collaborators, then, as I gained more experience in the SLE process, I reached out to other healthcare professionals to collaborate and gain feedback on my practice. This proved especially useful when undertaking my clinical skills section as it allowed me to gain feedback from healthcare professionals with the necessary expertise.

Incorporating IP experiences into my portfolio

After completing the first stage of the programme, I began my Independent Prescribing (IP) qualification, where I was able to use experiences gained from my prescribing course as evidence in my portfolio. Following receipt of my IP qualification, I knew I was on the home straight and focussed on completing SLEs relating to the non-clinical domains. By this point, I felt well-established within the hospital I was based at and managed to use a wide range of collaborators from different specialities to complete my portfolio.

Understanding the framework and guidance

As I was in the first cohort of pharmacists undertaking this programme, my educational supervisor and I took the time to read through the framework and guidance offered by the RPS and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to gain an understanding of what was expected of us over the coming years. Throughout my first year working as a pharmacist, the majority of my SLEs focussed on developing and applying my clinical knowledge and skills as well as working within the multidisciplinary team to provide person-centred care.

Using SLEs and gathering feedback

I used a variety of SLEs such as clinical evaluation exercises (mini-CEX), case-based discussions (CbD) and acute care assessment tools (ACAT) to demonstrate my abilities whilst gathering constructive feedback on how to improve and strengthen them. As these skills improved, my educational supervisor and I discussed how I could focus further on the non-clinical domains. Using the Intermediate Progress Reviews and the Learning Needs Analysis helped us to navigate how I was going to achieve this by highlighting areas for development and allowing me to track my progress.

Seeking learning opportunities

As a result, I actively sought learning opportunities such as undertaking a quality improvement project, authoring a blog for the health boards’ webpage on cost savings, leading on a focus group for frailty, and teaching junior doctors about high-risk medications, where again, I was able to receive feedback in order to strengthen my leadership, management, education and research skills.

Ultimately, the Foundation Pharmacist programme has not only helped me to grow as a pharmacist in terms of my clinical and non-clinical capabilities, but it has also encouraged me to seek out a multitude of learning opportunities which I would not have necessarily undertaken otherwise. Furthermore, it has simultaneously allowed me to build strong relationships with colleagues within our multidisciplinary team for which I am extremely grateful and will utilise throughout my career and as I progress onto my advanced practice. I am lucky to have had such a supportive team and thank everyone who contributed to my portfolio.

For more information on RPS Post-Registration Foundation Credentialing. 

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