Specialist Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner – Oncology

Job overview

We are excited to offer the opportunity to join our team as a specialist practitioner in adult oncology.

The pharmacist practitioner role will join an existing team of pharmacist practitioners who are embedded within the Oncology MDT predominantly in the outpatient clinic setting, providing direct care to oncology patients.

You will be an integral part of the Oncology service, working alongside the medical and nursing teams to review patients on anticancer therapies and prescribe treatment.

Main duties of the job

Please familiarise yourself with the full job description and person specification documents attached to this advert

Provide a specialist level patient-facing clinical service to a defined caseload of patients

Review patients in an outpatient clinic setting

Prescribe pharmacological treatment for cancer and supportive treatments

Initiate, evaluate and modify a range of interventions

Improve standards of care for patients

Promote safe and evidenced-based practice

To be a Trust-wide source of information on matters relating to chemotherapy and the wider speciality; including providing support to advanced practitioners and non-medical prescribers of chemotherapy

Including:

Attending and actively participating in speciality ward rounds, board rounds, clinics and multidisciplinary team meetings, as appropriate

Providing specialist advice and guidance on all issues relating to prescribing and therapeutics of medicines and chemotherapy for the specialty ensuring they are in line with national and local guidelines

Critically evaluate published literature and a variety of medicines related information to inform practice and patient care decisions

To provide opinion and advice and be a source of referral for chemotherapy issues

To act as an independent prescriber in a specialist practice area

The post holder will be based at City campus of NUH and may be required to carry out clinics at our satellite oncology service at Kingsmill Hospital

Working for our organisation

This post offers you the opportunity to work as part of an established and friendly team in one of the UK’s largest and busiest acute NHS teaching hospital Trusts.

The Cancer Pharmacy Team is forward thinking, with five clinic based pharmacy practitioner roles, across six tumor sites. Pharmacy are actively involved with service improvements, working in collaboration with the wider oncology MDT.

NUH is a Cancer Centre providing a regional service to a population of over 3 million. We are a specialist tertiary service for lymphoma, myeloma, germ-cell cancers and sarcomas, as well treating patients with all other malignancies. We have a nationally recognised bone marrow transplant unit for adults with haematological malignancy, a dedicated teenage and young adult unit and are imminently starting a CAR-T service. We actively participate in cancer clinical trials.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the Job Description and Personal Specification for full details of the role.

JOB SUMMARY

1) To partake in specialised clinical pharmacy duties ensuring core clinical pharmacy activities are undertaken

2) To provide a specialist level patient-facing clinical service to a defined caseload of patients

3) To develop the provision of advanced clinical practice – promoting safe and evidenced-based practice and contributing to improved clinical outcomes and services to patients

4) To line manage and support more junior pharmacists in the listed specialties

5) To take full part in the 7 day shifted rota and bank holidays duties

The post holder will be based at City campus of Nottingham University Hospitals but may be required to carry out clinics at the satellite oncology service at Kingsmill Hospital, Mansfield

KEY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

To partake in specialised clinical pharmacy duties ensuring core clinical pharmacy activities are undertaken

Specialised clinical pharmacy activities

To provide clinical input (at specialist level) to the Oncology Department

To work alongside the medical and Advanced Clinical Practitioner team in prescribing for people being cared for in the Oncology Department

Provide highly complex advice and guidance requiring analysis, interpretation and comparison of options on all issues relating to prescribing and therapeutics within Oncology

Maintain a working knowledge relating to prescribing and therapeutics for all services in the Cancer cluster

To support oncology activity flow, through providing prescribing support to outpatient and daycase areas

To form a key component of the Oncology MDT

Core clinical pharmacy activities

To work in accordance with relevant pharmacy and Trust policies and procedures relating to medicines management

To ensure safe rational and effective prescribing

Providing medicines for individual patients during their stay in hospital, at discharge and also for out-patient visits where appropriate

To work as an independent prescriber alongside the medical team, contributing to medicines optimisation

Interpreting and requesting clinical tests to monitor and make recommendations to improve effectiveness of drug therapy

Pro-actively liaising with other members of the MDT in order to ensure safe use of medicines

Making recommendations about medicines to improve patient outcomes and to encourage adherence to hospital formulary and national guidelines

Providing advice and guidance in relation to unlicensed medicines use and clinical trial medicines under the direction of the senior pharmacist for clinical trials

Ensuring the efficient, safe and timely supply of medicines for individual patients during their stay in hospital, and when discharged, improving the patient experience in relation to the medication aspects of hospital discharge

To provide a specialist level patient-facing clinical service to a defined caseload of patients

To manage a caseload of patients as part of the Oncology Clinical Team within one or more defined specialist areas:

To review those patients in an outpatient clinic setting

To initiate and continue pharmacological treatment for cancer and supportive treatments as appropriate

Initiate, evaluate and modify a range of interventions, including prescribing of medicines

Advanced Professional Practice: Improve standards of care for patients.

To develop and provide advanced clinical practice – promoting safe and evidenced-based practice and contributing to improved clinical outcomes and services to patients within the oncology department.

To be a Trust-wide source of information on matters relating to chemotherapy and the wider speciality; including providing support to advanced practitioners and non-medical prescribers of chemotherapy

This will include:

Attending and actively participating in speciality ward rounds, board rounds, clinics and multidisciplinary team meetings, as appropriate.

Providing specialist advice and guidance on all issues relating to prescribing and therapeutics of medicines and chemotherapy for the specialty ensuring they are in line with national and local guidelines.

Critically evaluate published literature and a variety of medicines related information, including: clinical trials data, medicines usage and expenditure reports, national policy, and clinical intervention reports, to inform practice and patient care decisions.

To provide opinion and advice and be a source of referral for chemotherapy issues for members of the multidisciplinary team within Trust and externally.

To act as an independent prescriber in a specialist practice area, as appropriate for the service

Practice as an independent prescriber, provide dose adjustment, advice and prescriptions for SACT medication with a narrow therapeutic range requiring therapeutic effect monitoring, including recording relevant biochemistry results in relevant patient medical records. Recording action plans, and adjusting doses to account for renal or liver dysfunction or other toxicities.

Other

To contribute to, facilitate or conduct clinical audits which are part of the Oncology or Pharmacy audit plan

To participate in research, communicate results and if suitable, register for a further degree

To undertake and document continuing professional development

To contribute to the teaching and training of undergraduate, postgraduate students and other healthcare professionals

To undertake any other duties that may reasonably be required as agreed by senior staff

Leadership, managementand directorate/service support roles

Contribute to the delivery of clinical pharmacy and medicines management services to the Oncology Department, with a particular focus on one or more defined sub-specialties, under the auspices of the Advanced Pharmacy Practitioner/Team Leader - Oncology and in liaison with other Specialist Clinical Pharmacists.

Liaise and work alongside relevant pharmacy colleagues and specialty staff and managers in ensuring continuity and development of clinical pharmacy services within the Oncology Department, with a particular responsibility for discharge, flow and inpatient services.

Maintain appropriate contact with and actively participate in regional and national specialty groups, advising these groups as appropriate, and in also identifying best practice and incorporating it into NUH practice

Support the Advanced Pharmacy Practitioner/Team Leader -

to deliver the ‘best possible clinical pharmacy service’

by developing KPIs that clearly demonstrate the contribution the post holder, rotational pharmacists and other support staff make to the care of patients within the Oncology Department

by reporting KPIs (delivered by the clinical pharmacy service) at regular intervals, as directed by the Assistant Head of Pharmacy – Clinical Services Lead e.g. activity data, contributions, service development contributions etc.

by representing pharmacy in relation to issues linked to the Oncology Department

Contribute to the submission of business cases to secure funding for service developments/new pharmacy posts within the Oncology Department

Attending relevant specialty meetings including governance meetings as appropriate: this will require effective communication of messages to and from such forums and ensuring necessary actions are enacted

Work with the lead oncology pharmacists to developing, implement and audit prescribing guidelines and drug protocols for the specialty. This includes risk assessments for new drug therapies and related protocols and supporting clinicians in the preparation of new product evaluations for own clinical area for the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee

Monitoring drug usage, prescribing patterns and expenditure in order to support the service in achieving a balanced drugs budget and planning for new drug developments

Act as a role model

Requirement to undertake and support relevant project work

Assist in the recruitment of new staff

To line manage and support more junior pharmacists and Medicines Management Technicians in the Cancer cluster

Direct contact point to provide support to the more junior pharmacists and other members of the team in the cluster

Ensure objectives for junior and senior rotational pharmacists who are assigned to this specialty are always up-to-date / current

Ensure that these pharmacists are making progress with objectives that have been set – ‘clearing the path’ where there are barriers to achieving these

Ensure effective performance management of pharmacy staff working in own specialty and other junior pharmacy staff, including 1:1s, diploma assessments and conducting appraisals using the Trust appraisal process

Ensure completion of all relevant documentation relating to performance management and objectives/PDPs of these pharmacists within the agreed time frames

Education and training of staff (rotational and diploma pharmacists, technicians, pre-registration pharmacists, pharmacy students) that are linked to the specialty

To take full part in the 7 day shifted rota and bank holidays duties

This post-holder will be required to provide clinical cover on weekends – this may vary with staffing levels. For each weekend worked equivalent time will be given back during the week. There will also be a requirement to be part of the senior pharmacist on-call rota as well as participating in rostered flexible shift working including evening, weekend and bank holiday arrangements over a 7 day period, in line with service requirements.

Please refer to the job description and person specification attached to the advert for the full details of the vacancy

This job description is not exhaustive. It is intended to give an outline of what is expected and is subject to annual review as part of appraisal scheme by the manager