The ‘secret sauce’ to building and educating a pharmacist
This year’s Annual Clinical Conference of the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland (HPAI) hosted national and international contributors, each of whom are experts in their fields, to deliver content on a comprehensive range of topics of interest to hospital pharmacy.
There were also workshop sessions that covered topics as diverse as neonatal intensive care, paediatric palliative care, presentation skills, anticoagulant therapy, pharmacy services development, and hepatology. The meeting was opened by Mr Richard Sykes, HPAI President, who commended all the contributors and encouraged all the pharmacists in attendance to connect with each other and share their valuable expertise.
The keynote presentation was delivered by Prof Roisin O’Hare, Northern Ireland Lead Clinical Education Pharmacist, who delivered a talk titled ‘How to ‘Build’ the Future Pharmacist’, which was in tune with the overall theme of the meeting, ‘Building the Pharmacist of the Future’.
Prof O’Hare discussed how mentor pharmacists, or someone who has been important to the development of a pharmacist, can help to shape the professional that person will become. “What was it about them that made them the best pharmacist to work with?” she asked the attendees.
She provided an overview of pharmacy education in N Ireland and emphasised that experiential learning is an important aspect of developing the ‘future pharmacist’. “The ‘parts’ needed to build the future pharmacist include clinical knowledge; clinical and physical examination skills; consultation skills; confidence; negotiation skills; strong professional identity; multi professional team working skills — not just on paper, but in practice; research and evaluation skills; teaching and feedback skills; empathy; scientific knowledge; leadership; digital competence… I could go on,” said Prof O’Hare.
‘Early exposure to responsibility is also important, and that is also longitudinal’
She explained the MPharm qualification in N Ireland has been adapted to help pharmacists incorporate these skills. This means embedding prescribing skills from Day 1 of the first year of training, along with developing enhanced consultation and physical assessment skills. Students are also encouraged to engage in novel assessment, including concepts such as ‘Entrustable Professional Activities’ (EPAs) and ‘Near Peer Teaching’ (NPT). Students are also encouraged to develop enhanced reflective and critical thinking and better interprofessional learning and working, with the overall goal of extended experiential learning in all areas of practice.
“Early exposure to responsibility is also important,” she told the conference, “and that is also longitudinal. While it is nice to go to different places [for placements in different hospitals], we try to keep people in the same place if possible. This means they can build relationships and build trust, which means it is more likely people will trust you to take on more work and responsibility. For foundation year, they then usually go back to the same hospital.”
She concluded: “You are the ‘secret sauce’; it’s all about you. It’s really important to know that you are the best pharmacist that somebody has ever worked with,” said Prof O’Hare. “You are the future of pharmacy, and you are also the future educators of the next generation, and you are the ones who are going to make it happen.”
