Abstract
Background Following evidence published in the Pharmacists in Emergency Departments (PIED 2016) study Health Education England funded novel advanced clinical practitioner training for pharmacists (ACP-p), to support service delivery.
Objective To explore experiences and clinical activity of trainee ACP-p, and opinions and recommendations of both trainees and clinical supervisors.
Setting Five Urgent/Emergency Care Departments in London UK.
Method Longitudinal mixed-methods study in three phases of registered UK pharmacists appointed as trainee ACP-p. Phase 1 (May-July 2019) – early semi-structured interviews and focus group using an experiences, opinions and recommendations (EOR) framework, Phase 2 (January-December 2019) – prospective recording of trainee clinical activity, standardised using bespoke spreadsheet, Phase 3 (November-December 2019) – as Phase 1 but at conclusion of training.
Main outcome measure Experiences, clinical activity, opinions and recommendations of study participants.
Results Twelve (92 %) eligible trainee ACP-p and five supervisors were recruited. Identified themes were: trainee personality, educational components, length of programme, support/supervision, career transition, university and placement training alignment, recommendations. Success was dependent on effective support and supervision. Clinical supervisors should be allocated adequate supervision time. Trainees, their supervisors and emergency department staff should be given a clear brief. Study participants agreed that the programme could be successful. Trainee ACP-p reported that they could manage 82 % of 713 pre-selected clinical presentations. Additional training needs include: ECGs, X-rays and CT scans.
Conclusions Pharmacists can successfully train as ACP-p in this setting over a two-year period. This career transition needs careful management and clear structures. Training ACP-p is a useful way of enhancing skills and supporting clinical services to large numbers of patients.
Objective To explore experiences and clinical activity of trainee ACP-p, and opinions and recommendations of both trainees and clinical supervisors.
Setting Five Urgent/Emergency Care Departments in London UK.
Method Longitudinal mixed-methods study in three phases of registered UK pharmacists appointed as trainee ACP-p. Phase 1 (May-July 2019) – early semi-structured interviews and focus group using an experiences, opinions and recommendations (EOR) framework, Phase 2 (January-December 2019) – prospective recording of trainee clinical activity, standardised using bespoke spreadsheet, Phase 3 (November-December 2019) – as Phase 1 but at conclusion of training.
Main outcome measure Experiences, clinical activity, opinions and recommendations of study participants.
Results Twelve (92 %) eligible trainee ACP-p and five supervisors were recruited. Identified themes were: trainee personality, educational components, length of programme, support/supervision, career transition, university and placement training alignment, recommendations. Success was dependent on effective support and supervision. Clinical supervisors should be allocated adequate supervision time. Trainees, their supervisors and emergency department staff should be given a clear brief. Study participants agreed that the programme could be successful. Trainee ACP-p reported that they could manage 82 % of 713 pre-selected clinical presentations. Additional training needs include: ECGs, X-rays and CT scans.
Conclusions Pharmacists can successfully train as ACP-p in this setting over a two-year period. This career transition needs careful management and clear structures. Training ACP-p is a useful way of enhancing skills and supporting clinical services to large numbers of patients.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1523-1532 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 10 May 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2021 |
Bibliographical note
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Keywords
- Advanced clinical practitioner
- Emergency care
- Emergency department
- Pharmacist practitioner
- United Kingdom