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The UKCPA Critical Care Group is developing an education and training programme for critical care pharmacy, says Ruth Warin, who is a critical care pharmacist.

The UKCPA’s Critical Care Group has been at the forefront of developing advanced level practice. The group developed a syllabus and a competency framework back in 2003 to give critical care pharmacists an idea of the knowledge and skills required to practise as an advanced practitioner.

Credentials

A credentialing process, designed to assess critical care pharmacists’ level of practice, was subsequently developed and it was this that was used as the basis for assessment by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Faculty.

The RPS Faculty has three levels of professional recognition:
• Advanced Stage I (MFRPSI)
• Advanced Stage II (MFRPSII) (equivalent to the UKCPA advanced level practice)
• Faculty Fellow (FFRPS).

Core standards

The UK core standards for intensive care units, published by the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM), recommend that each critical care patient should be reviewed by a pharmacist working at advanced level (RPS Faculty Advanced Stage II) or above (RPS Faculty Fellow).

It highlights that pharmacists working below advanced level should have access to colleagues working at the advanced (Faculty Advanced Stage II) or consultant level (Faculty Fellow) for advice and referrals.

Currently, the UK critical care workforce data identifies that a significant number of critical care pharmacists are working below the advanced level. To address the shortfall of pharmacists working at advanced level, the UKCPA CCG felt it was important to identify the current education and training resources being used by critical care pharmacists to develop their practice.

A survey was undertaken to identify both these resources and the gaps in the provision of advanced level practice education. The most significant findings from the survey were a reliance on work-based learning and a lack of suitable training packages to develop advance level practice.

Importantly, critical care pharmacists indicated that a national training programme for advanced level practice was needed.

Feedback from the credentialing process also identified “the need for more formal education, training and guidance for pharmacists in advanced levels of practice”.

Next steps

The results of the survey and the feedback from the credentialing process highlighted that, to be able to provide the necessary pharmacy workforce for critical care, the development of an education and training programme was essential.

Research is now being undertaken to identify the most suitable educational models for the development of an advanced level pharmacy training programme so that it can be designed to be applicable to all speciality pharmacy groups and provide cost-effectiveness to the NHS. Watch this space.

For more information, access www.ukcpa.net or tel: 0116 288 9889