In your portfolio, you should include evidence of your psychiatric pharmacy practice which benefits the patient, carer, prescriber or other healthcare staff. Evidence presented should make it clear what the outcome or benefit was of your intervention, contribution or practice.
Where 2 options for evidence are allowed:
Option a) is more suitable if you are in a clinical role with regular patient contact
Option b) is more suitable if you are practising in a more strategic or managerial role with limited or infrequent direct patient contact
You may complete option a or b throughout the portfolio or alternate between them.
Task 1
Please provide a copy of your most recent job description and describe your current service and role and responsibilities within this service (250 words).
Task 2
Please complete one of the following options:
a) Provide an account of one month’s worth of your mental health clinical interventions undertaken in the last 12 months in a format similar to that required for the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychiatric Pharmacy. These interventions can result from direct contact on wards or in the community, during MDT meetings or indirect contact via the telephone.
or
b) Provide 6 examples (or 2 extensive examples) of situations where your mental health knowledge actively contributed to an initiative in the last 12 months. This may include examples of peer reviewing or clinical supervision of other pharmacists, advising on complex cases, providing clinical advice during a challenging meeting, responding to NPSA / NICE reports or advising on clinical investigations /complaints. Larger examples could include significant involvement in a regional or National consultation over an extensive period of time, significant involvement (author or editor) of a major publication on some aspect of the use of medicines in mental health.
Task 3
Please complete one of the following options:
a) Provide an account of one month's worth of interviews undertaken in the last 12 months with patients or carers about mental health medicines. These formal interviews can be either to obtain a medication history (e.g. medicine reconciliation) or to educate patients or carers about the mental health medicines prescribed or to facilitate choice. The accounts should be presented using either the format similar to that of the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychiatric pharmacy or an equivalent pro-forma.
or
b) Provide 6 examples of verbal presentations related to psychiatric pharmacy. This may include formal lectures, workshops or tutorials to healthcare staff, patients or carers or a presentation to a strategic meeting such as a Medicines Management committee, a clinical governance forum or the trust board. Include a short summary providing the context of each presentation, a copy of the presentation and where possible provide an evaluation of these sessions.
or
c) If the candidate has limited patient contact, a combination of options 1 and 2 may be supplied i.e. 3 examples of verbal presentations related to psychiatric pharmacy and an account of one months’ worth of interviews.
Task 4
Provide evidence from the last 12 months of psychiatric pharmacy practice of 6 examples (or 2 extensive examples) where a dialogue about prescribing quality or medication selection occurred. These interventions occurred at a forum that decided on prescribing issues in mental health and resulted in a change of prescribing procedure, or practice which had a direct impact on patient care. Examples range from audits or projects that brought about a change in prescribing in the organisation through to local changes that influenced ward based decisions about the use of a medicine possibly via a multidisciplinary clinical management team. Larger examples should include significant involvement in a regional or National consultation.
Task 5
Please include evidence of past or present active psychiatric pharmacy practice in two mental health specialties or active involvement in a forum which makes organisational decisions about prescribing. If you have used option b in the previous tasks, please ensure that this section demonstrates previous direct patient contact. (250 words for each example).
Examples include:
- Adult psychiatry
- Child psychiatry
- Forensic psychiatry
- Older Persons Mental Health
- Substance misuse
- Community mental health teams
- Primary care psychiatric pharmacy
- Learning disabilities
- Medicines Management Committee
- Area Prescribing Committee
Remember to review the competencies being assessed in this file when collating your evidence: competencies