9 courses every newly qualified pharmacist should do before their first shift

The June 2017 exam, in my opinion, went so bad, Arsenal had a better chance of winning the Premier League than me passing. Thankfully luck was on my side! Looking forward post — registering, the next stage is to complete the relevant courses needed for employment or locuming but more importantly to provide greater patient care. Here is a list of 9 courses every newly qualified pharmacist (NQP) should do before their first shift.

1. Indemnity Insurance — Professional insurance to protect yourself in case anything happens (Okay so it’s not really a course, more of an action. But very important nonetheless!). You are only covered for an incident if you had insurance before the incident happened.
2. Child and Vulnerable Adult Safeguarding
3. Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) programme and assessment
4. Medicine Use Review (MUR) certificate and send to NHS England teams where you’ll be working
5. New Medicine Service (NMS) self-assessment form — a prerequisite for this course is MUR certification
6. Dementia friends programme and assessment
7. Flu and Declaration of Competence for Flu — Requires face to face training
8. Healthy Living Champion training — Not essential right now, but with the growing role of pharmacists, this may become a mandatory in the future
9. Minor ailments services programme and minor ailment assessment

There are multiple different providers for the courses above — ensure your selected provider is fully registered and compliant with regulations.

In addition there are ‘Foundation Pharmacy’ programmes which support you in your first year(s) of being an NQP. CPPE’s programme is a 12 month intensive through their various courses, whereas the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s course supports NQPs for their first 1000 days of practice. Explore the links below!

• CPPE — Deadline to apply is 25th Septmeber
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society — Need to be a member to access

Courtesy of Pharmacist Support

Being an NQP can mean the feeling of stress or isolation which can take its toll. But you don’t need to feel alone. Pharmacist Support is a fantastic charity working for pharmacists and their families, former pharmacists, pharmacy students and pre-registration trainees to provide help and support in times of need. They provide a range of self-help fact sheets and confidential services to help NQPs and their families during difficult and challenging times.

Thank you to Ben Merriman for helping me write this. If you haven’t already, check out “Ben Merriman’s summary of the Drug Tariff”.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please show your support by liking and sharing this post. Consider subscribing to the publication and following on Twitter and Facebook for updates and new content.