NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service

This programme enables community pharmacy professionals to identify how to deliver the NHS CPCS to high standards of practice and how to integrate into the multidisciplinary team to support urgent care. It provides facts about the referral process between NHS 111 and the NHS CPCS. It also supports community pharmacists and their teams to ensure people have a positive journey through the system when they need an urgent supply of a medicine, or support in managing a low-acuity (minor) illness.

Learning Outcomes:

• summarise the context for reforms to urgent and emergency care in the NHS
• explain the role of community pharmacy in supporting urgent care pathways in the NHS that contribute to better patient experiences and outcomes
• access resources to help you deliver the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (NHS CPCS) effectively to patients and other healthcare providers
• plan how your pharmacy team will support the delivery of the NHS CPCS
• reflect on and identify the skills that you need to develop or enhance to deliver high-quality, person-centred clinical assessments of patients referred to the pharmacy.

This is a video-based programme where you will watch experts demonstrating the key phrases, skills and techniques for a person-centred approach to consultations. The interactive activities will help you apply your learning to practice and make best use of the time during a consultation. You will also be able to explain the concept of clinical empathy and how to demonstrate this in practice.

Learning Outcomes:

• apply key phrases to facilitate a patient-centred approach to your consultation
• demonstrate appropriate skills and behaviours to ensure the best use of time in the consultation
• explain the concept of clinical empathy and how it can be demonstrated
• rate consultation skills and techniques more confidently in preparation for the Consultation skills for pharmacy practice assessment.

This programme will help to update your knowledge and skills on the common clinical conditions and minor ailments that present themselves in community pharmacy. It contains practical tips and advice on how to identify, recognise and manage minor ailments.

Please note: this e-learning programme has been developed and provided by NHS Education for Scotland. Users should recognise that this programme will refer to Scottish policies and organisations. CPPE does not maintain control over the accuracy and currency of this programme.

Learning Outcomes:

• identify the common minor ailments that present themselves in community pharmacy
• recognise, manage and advise on the signs and symptoms of minor ailments
• identify danger signs and symptoms, know how to manage these and when to refer patients
• offer advice, support and evidence-based over-the-counter treatment to patients with minor ailments
• know where to find relevant information and resources on minor ailments.

The overall aim of this course is to create a culture shift in practice by supporting pharmacy professionals to embed shared decision making as part of personalised care.

Learning Outcomes:

• define what is meant by shared decision making
• describe how shared decision making can improve a consultation from the perspective of a pharmacist and the person that they are consulting with
• demonstrate the use of the tools and techniques outlined in this course to support shared decision making*
• compare these different tools and techniques in order to select those that you will use in practice
• evaluate your ability to use shared decision making in practice.

* To fully meet this learning outcome as part of this programme you will need to arrange role play activities independently. Further details on how to do this are shared as part of the programme. If you are unable or choose not to arrange the role play activities you can achieve this learning outcome through experiential learning and applying what you have learnt from the programme to your practice.

This is a downloadable programme that enables you to describe the key communication and consultation skills and techniques required for person-centred care. You will learn how to explore a person’s beliefs, ideas, concerns and expectations and tailor the consultation to help them get the best from their medicines and to make informed health and lifestyle choices. The programme also develops your skills in engaging the person in shared decision making and enabling them to be a true partner in the consultation.

Learning Outcomes:

• explain the concept of patient-centred care
• describe the key communication and consultation skills and techniques required to conduct patient-centred care
• apply methods to assess your own practice and identify areas of improvement
• support patients, by using a patient-centred approach, to help them get the best from their medicines and/or in making healthy lifestyle choices
• further develop your practice by exploring tools and techniques, such as health coaching.

This programme has been developed by NHS Education for Scotland to support you in the management of over-the-counter (OTC) consultations. The programme includes a distance learning pack providing information and suggestions to help you refresh your management of OTC consultations, and a prescription-only medicine to pharmacy (POM to P) product guide for specific OTC medicines.

Please note: this learning programme has been developed and provided by NHS Education for Scotland. Users should recognise that this programme will refer to Scottish policies and organisations.

Learning Outcomes:

• describe strategies for gathering information during OTC consultations
• describe the Calgary-Cambridge model and its application to OTC consultations in the pharmacy
• provide examples and recommendations regarding methods that could be used to influence your own practice and identify areas of improvement.

In this video Andre Yeung describes the new CPCS and the importance of the role in pharmacy in supporting the NHS 111 service.

The PSNC has launched a video animation and infographic explaining how GP practices can refer into the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS).

In this video-based e-learning programme, we consider the key skills you can use to take an effective clinical history. The program uses the Calgary-Cambridge guide to take you through the clinical history-taking process and introduces you to tools and resources to help you demonstrate a patient-centred approach to the consultation.

Learning Outcomes:

• describe the clinical history-taking process
• explain the structure of the clinical history consultation
• apply key tools and techniques to the clinical history-taking consultation
• identify how to apply a patient-centred approach to taking a clinical history in practice through video observation
• develop a questioning sheet to use in practice.

Please note: This e-learning programme currently makes reference to services that are no longer commissioned since 1 April 2021, for example, Medicine Use Reviews (MURs). The learning objectives of the programme are not directly affected by this change and a planned updated programme will be available during 2023.

In this programme we consider ways in which you can overcome the challenges that prevent you from delivering high quality and effective person-centred services in your pharmacy.

You will hear about successful approaches taken by other pharmacy teams across the country and develop a plan to enable you to effectively implement new services in your practice to improve outcomes for patients.

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

• explain the context and drivers for delivering person-centred pharmacy services
• identify the main barriers to effective service delivery and understand what you can do to overcome these in your practice
• identify where you can go for further support to develop your practice
• develop a plan to makes changes to your practice.

Pharmacy professionals, as an integral part of the NHS Long Term Plan, are now routinely working in GP practices, care homes, secondary care, community and commissioning within a multi-disciplinary team. This growing infrastructure demands the need for effective communication between healthcare professionals working in different sectors. This programme will support you with documenting in patient clinical records to enable continuity of patient care in integrated local services.

Learning Outcomes:

• summarise the legal and regulatory requirements for patient clinical records
• describe the information required for clear, concise and appropriate patient clinical records
• recognise the required structure expected when writing in patient clinical records
• document details of patient consultations and clinical interventions concisely and accurately in patient clinical records.

Excellent communication and consultation skills are a key part of providing safe and effective services. CPPE has developed this set of cards to help all pharmacy staff improve their skills. All members of the pharmacy team should find this resource useful for improving their communication and consultation skills. The cards can be used by individuals, or as a tool to facilitate a training session.

This learning resource is also freely available for all pharmacy staff to download from the Consultation skills for pharmacy practice website.

Learning Outcomes:

• describe what patient-centred care means
• be more confident when communicating with the people who come into your pharmacy
• recognise good communication and consultation skills, compared with those that need improvement
• explain how facial expressions and body language can improve communication and help to build a rapport
• apply good listening skills
• know how to close a consultation effectively and safely
• discuss some of the challenges and barriers to good communication in community pharmacy.

This e-learning has been developed for NHS 111 staff only. Please contact england.dos@nhs.net with any queries.