Clinical Pharmacy Technician - Oncology

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To contribute to the delivery of a proactive and highly visible clinical & technical pharmacy service within the clinical specialty in line with operational requirements and medicines optimisation initiatives.

To work with the Lead Pharmacist to successfully deliver on clinical and medicines optimisation outcomes in the specialist area.

To prepare and present progress reports and audits to agreed timescale.

To be responsible for the cascading of relevant information / communications.

To support the Lead Pharmacist to collate the information needed to demonstrate progress with National and Local CQUINs, Key Performance Indicators and National Standards in the specialty.

To monitor achievements against the above indicators and identify failures to meet targets.

To proactively engage Clinicians with the Lead Pharmacist in developing measures to achieve clinical and medicines optimisation outcomes.

To assist the Lead Pharmacist in the development, communication and implementation of clinical guidelines.

To assist in the monitoring of drug expenditure, supporting formulary compliance in all aspects of clinical activity.

To develop, support and/or facilitate the dissemination of the findings from audits to divisions and directorates.

To assist the Lead Pharmacist to ensure that all medication safety and clinical governance issues are actioned and implemented in a timely manner.

Responsible for the line management of allocated Pharmacy Technicians & Pharmacy Assistants, and delivery of training in the speciality area.

To undertake a pre-dispensing check & dispensing authorisation of discharge prescribing, identifying therapeutic duplication, omission or contra-indicated medication, referring to the Pharmacist as appropriate.

As part of role may be required to prepare medicines from raw materials such as aseptics requiring fine motor skills including manipulation of fine tools for pharmaceutical preparations.

To identify polypharmacy in inpatient & discharge prescribing, referring to the Pharmacist as appropriate.

To assess inpatient prescribing against clearly pre-defined regimens, referring to the Pharmacist in line with a pre-defined clinical escalation framework and professional judgement.

To carry out a pre-dispensing check and dispensing authorisation on clinic repeat-dispensing requests from dose 2 onwards, referring to the Pharmacist in line with a pre-defined clinical escalation framework and professional judgement.

To carry out all routine pharmacy operational activities including, but not limited to, dispensing, final accuracy checking, medicines reconciliation, ordering and counselling.

To line manage pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants as appropriate, in line with the relevant Trust HR policies and guidance.

To manage staff recruitment and selection (including chairing of interview panels), grievance and disciplinary procedures, and appraisal processes for relevant staff.

To provide expert advice in the use of medicines, referring to relevant reference sources and escalating to the Pharmacist when appropriate.

To support the ward-based medicines management team in promoting adherence to all national, regional and local standards in medicines management practice.

To promote adherence to the Trust formulary, respectfully challenging prescribing within the scope of own professional knowledge/practice and escalating to the Pharmacist as appropriate.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Critical and analytical skills for assessing data and reports. Where problems arise, they may be complex and involve the consideration of a range of options in order to come to a solution.

Good interpersonal and communication skills for effective provision of information, to pharmacy colleagues, prescribers, nurses and other HealthCare Professionals

Frequent concentration required when writing reports and analysing error reports

Ability to prioritise and manage workload to meet deadlines

Ability to work with a high degree of accuracy

Ability to work alone and in a team

Ability to act autonomously and responsibly within own sphere of knowledge, recognising and working within own competence.

Maintain confidentiality and security of patient and staff information.