Osteoporosis

The aim of this workshop is to increase your understanding of falls and how the pharmacy team can help prevent and support those who have had a fall.

Learning Outcomes:

• describe the role of pharmacy professionals in prevention of falls
• identify the factors that contribute to the increased risk of falls
• identify people at risk of falls and provide solutions to reduce this risk through lifestyle and medicine interventions
• provide educational advice on promoting good bone health and medicines for osteoporosis
• explain how you can utilise your knowledge in falls prevention to better support your patients.

This factsheet offers background information on osteoporosis, explores different management options and highlights resources that can be used to support patients.

This NICE Clinic knowledge summary (CKS) offers background information on osteoporosis and provides details on assessment and management.

This programme aims to support pharmacy professionals to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to have person-centred conversations about reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• define osteoporosis, and recognise the symptoms and impact it can have on people
• recognise the risk factors for osteoporosis and fragility fractures, and identify those at risk
• use appropriate tools and resources to assess people’s risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures
• take a person-centred approach to supporting people in managing their risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures
• use shared decision making in consultations with people about treatment options to manage osteoporosis and reduce their risk of fragility fractures.

This learning has been developed by the Royal osteoporosis society in partnership with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).

It uses a case based approach to discussing the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis and prevention of fragility fractures, incorporating the guidance from NICE, SIGN and the national osteoporosis guideline group (NOGG) and identifying the differences between them where relevant. It highlights ‘at risk’ groups and discusses the FRAX and QFracture risk assessment tools, giving the opportunity to use them in the scenarios presented.

Please note that access requires registration.

This e-assessment is linked with the CPPE Osteoporosis: a focus on prevention e-learning programme and assesses you on the learning objectives within that programme. 

Why should I do this assessment?

This e-assessment completes the learning you began with the CPPE Osteoporosis: a focus on prevention e-learning programme. Access and successful completion will contribute to your own personal development plan, be recorded in your My CPPE record, and will enable you to complete a revalidation record on the learning. It may also provide evidence for achieving competencies in the different competency frameworks that apply across your career. If you are working towards completing a Declaration of Competence for a pharmacy service, successful completion of this assessment will provide evidence of your learning. 

This guideline covers assessing the risk of fragility fracture in people aged 18 and over with osteoporosis. It aims to provide guidance on the selection and use of risk assessment tools in the care of adults at risk of fragility fractures in all NHS settings.

This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the management of osteoporosis and prevention of fractures. It addresses; risk factors for fracture, commonly used tools for fracture risk assessment, approaches to targeting therapy, pharmacological, and non-pharmacological treatments to reduce fracture risk in different patient groups, treatment of painful vertebral fractures and systems of care. The assessment and prevention of falls and surgical management of fractures is not included.

This quality standard covers managing osteoporosis in adults (aged 18 and over), including assessing risk and preventing fragility fractures. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

This is the National osteoporosis guideline group 2017 - Clinical guideline for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis

This updated guideline has been prepared with the support of the societies listed to provide guidance on prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

The scope of the guideline is to review the assessment and diagnosis of osteoporosis, the therapeutic interventions available and the manner in which these can be used to develop management strategies for the prevention of osteoporotic fracture in postmenopausal women and in men age 50 years or over.

The Royal Osteoporosis Society is the UK’s only national charity dedicated to bone health and osteoporosis. They work to improve the bone health of the nation and support everyone with osteoporosis to live well through our support services and advice.

Their website has a Healthcare professionals area which links to learning and resources.

The aim of this piece of learning is to support you to become more confident with biochemistry results and managing medicines in relation to those results. We have a series of case studies on different topics to help put your learning into practice.

This case study forms part of the Biochemistry learning gateway. On this learning gateway page, you will find a range of learning resources which aim to increase your knowledge, skills, and confidence in relation to biochemistry.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• identify the common symptoms of primary hyperparathyroidism 
• link how abnormal bone profile results are caused by the effect of the parathyroid hormone on the body in hyperparathyroidism.

This Public Health England guidance can be used by all health care professionals to support people who may be at risk of falls.