Primary care: general practice and care homes

Welcome to the CPPE Primary care: general practice and care homes learning gateway.  

Pharmacy professionals are expanding their roles in general practice and care homes by supporting medicines optimisation, using shared decision making and NHS England’s personalised care agenda. 

Pharmacy professionals are equipped to drive best practice in medicines optimisation through leadership and quality improvement. Pharmacy professionals working in general practice and care homes can build networks, working across systems supporting the multidisciplinary health and social care teams to offer the very best person-centred care. They can also assist colleagues in community pharmacy as well as secondary and tertiary care to support transfer of care. Pharmacy professionals can support people living in care homes by carrying out medication reviews, providing training and support to care homes staff, and helping the whole multidisciplinary team (MDT) to meet national quality standards for providing safe, effective and appropriate care to the general population and people living in care homes.  

On this page, you will find a wide range of resources which will support you when working in general practice or care homes, or that will be useful if you are thinking about moving into these fields.  

Those of you who are already experienced in general practice or care homes will find resources to help you develop your role.

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.

The aim of this workshop is to develop your knowledge and skills to enable you to take a shared approach to the safe and appropriate deprescribing of medicines.

A note about keycodes, and pathway and non-pathway event listings

After you select Choose an event, please be aware that workshop listings which require keycodes to access are for pharmacy professionals taking part in the Primary care pharmacy education pathway, while workshops that do not require a keycode are for all other pharmacy professionals who have identified this topic as a learning need.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• describe the process of deprescribing and the involvement you can have within your role
• explain the importance of involving the person and the multidisciplinary team in the deprescribing process
• apply a person-centred and shared decision-making approach to deprescribing that considers the person’s perspective and experiences
• use a stepwise approach to the process of deprescribing, from identification through to reducing or stopping a medicine
• incorporate tools that can support the deprescribing process.

The aim of this course is to prepare pharmacy professionals for working within general practice or a primary care network (PCN). This is done by sharing the experiences of others, supporting individuals to highlight individual development needs and signposting to key resources.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• outline current legislation to help you recognise and maintain good professional standards
• identify key resources to support the development of your education and research skills
• describe the importance and impact of patient safety and know how to apply policies and procedures to support this in practice
• explain the digital technology, clinical systems and data protection regulations that you will be required to use to support patient care in practice
• facilitate culturally competent person-centred consultations using key skills, models and techniques
• identify gaps in your clinical knowledge and know where to locate appropriate resources to address them
• appreciate how to use guidance, tools and frameworks to strengthen your practice in supporting older people and those living in care homes
• recognise the patient journey across primary care and describe the role pharmacy professionals working in a primary care network or general practice can play in supporting transfer of care
• recognise the support available to you both in and out of the workplace and the opportunities available for future career progression.

This Primary care essentials e-course is a standalone module. However, it also forms part of the Primary care pharmacy education pathway which is the training for pharmacy professionals with roles in primary care networks (PCN). You can access the pathway here.

The aim of this e-course is to introduce the fundamentals of new roles in primary care for those who are not eligible for the Primary care pharmacy education pathway.

This e-course will cover NHS structure and primary care, introduction to local general practice and care homes, medicines optimisation, medication review, prescribing and repeat prescribing, prescribing data, clinical information technology systems, audits, evidence-based use of medicines, working with the multidisciplinary team and person-centred professionalism.

By working through the activities in each unit and focusing on the tasks relating to your role, you will develop knowledge, skills, experience, and behaviours to support you in a role in primary care.

We have structured the programme into ten learning units and we estimate that you will probably need to commit between eight to ten hours of learning per unit to gain maximum benefit from the programme.

Learning Outcomes:

• explain NHS structure and the commissioning landscape in primary care
• understand the role general practice and care homes play in delivering the public health agenda and signposting to other healthcare providers such as community pharmacy
• define your PCN patient population and the roles and responsibilities of the wider healthcare team
• define how pharmacy professionals work in patient-facing roles as part of the PCN
• identify the features of good-quality prescribing, repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing
• use prescribing data to identify priorities to improve prescribing and patient care
• access clinical IT systems to document activities and run searches
• measure prescribing practice using audits
• promote medicines optimisation to improve patient outcomes relating to medicines and to reduce waste
• identify trusted sources of evidence-based information and communicate effectively with the multidisciplinary team
• identify patients for medication review and support the multidisciplinary team to improve medication reviews
• develop relationships with the wider multidisciplinary team and promote networking
• demonstrate person-centred professionalism
• explain the importance of good quality pharmacy practice research to effective primary care practice.

This learning programme will update your knowledge on the roles and responsibilities of different members of the multidisciplinary health and social care team, and how you can work with them to support personalised care. You will develop your knowledge of the legislation, quality and standards used to support care homes and how pharmacy teams can support medicines optimisation for people living in care homes.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• describe the importance of personalised care for people living in a care home setting
• identify the members of the multidisciplinary health and social care teams
• state the legislation, policies and standards relating to care homes
• summarise the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacy professional supporting medicines optimisation in a care home
• apply the principles of personalised care during a structured medication review in line with relevant standards and legislation relating to care homes
• state the legislation, policies and standards relating to care homes  
• summarise the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacy professional supporting medicines optimisation in a care home
• apply the principles of personalised care during a structured medication review in line with relevant standards and legislation relating to care homes. 

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.

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:

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

• 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.

The aim of this learning programme is to help you support people taking multiple medicines to get the most out of their medicines and increase your confidence in addressing potentially problematic polypharmacy.

Learning Outcomes:

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

• explain the terminology associated with polypharmacy
• recognise the factors that contribute to problematic polypharmacy
• identify people in your area of practice with problematic polypharmacy
• take a person-centred approach to understanding the impact of polypharmacy
• apply appropriate tools and resources to work in partnership with people to manage their multiple medicines.

The aim of this learning programme is to support you to identify overprescribing in your own area of practice and help you empower people to be more involved in decisions about their care. 

Learning Outcomes:

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

• explain why tackling overprescribing is a national priority
• identify overprescribing in your area of practice
• empower people to be more involved in decisions about their care.

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 e-learning programme is for all pharmacy professionals undertaking virtual consultations. It has been developed to support you in applying your existing consultation skills when undertaking consultations via video and over the phone.

Learning Outcomes:

• explain the similarities and differences between remote and face-to-face consultations
• identify when it is suitable to undertake a remote consultation and when a face-to-face consultation should be offered
• describe the steps you can take to prepare for a remote consultation
• discuss the way that the CONSULT model can be used to support the planning and undertaking of a remote consultation
• identify actions that you can take throughout a remote consultation, in order to build rapport and manage challenges
• relate your learning to existing consultation skills, in order to successfully undertake remote consultations.

This distance learning programme will enable you to support people with a learning disability and their families to manage behaviours that challenge, in line with National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidance. It will also empower you to adopt a holistic approach to medicines optimisation to help people with a learning disability to be involved in the consultation when they can and to make the most of their medicines.

Learning Outcomes:

• categorise a range of learning disabilities and the differences in capability that can occur in each of these
• describe key policy drivers that support change in the management of people with a learning disability
• explain consent to a person with a learning disability and recognise when to involve family members, carers and support workers in the consultation
• demonstrate patient-centred consultation skills and behaviours to meet the needs of people with a learning disability
• promote physical health and wellbeing and support patients to manage their concurrent physical health conditions
• identify people with a learning disability and concurrent mental health disorder and provide them with advice and support
• support people with a learning disability and their families to manage behaviour that challenges, in line with National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidance
• explain the importance of a holistic approach to medicines optimisation as a strategy to help people with a learning disability make the most of their medicines.

We have a portfolio of clinical fact sheets which includes topics such as sepsis, pneumonia, UTIs and healthcare associated infections. Each fact sheet should refresh your knowledge of that particular condition and provide you with links to appropriate further resources.

This e-assessment is linked with the CPPE Primary care essentials e-course and assesses you on the learning outcomes within that programme.

Why should I do this assessment?

This e-assessment is linked with CPPE’s Care homes: supporting people, optimising medicines e-learning programme, and covers the learning outcomes within that programme.

Why should I do this assessment?

This e-assessment completes the learning you began with the Care homes: supporting people, optimising medicines programme. Access and successful completion will contribute to your own personal development plan, and be recorded in your CPPE Learning record. It will also enable you to complete a revalidation record on the learning, and could provide evidence for achieving competencies in the different competency frameworks that apply across your career.

This e-assessment is linked with the practice standards for consultation skills and the CPPE consultation skills learning programmes.

Why should I do this assessment?

Access and successful completion of this assessment will contribute to your own personal development plan, be recorded in your My CPPE record and will enable you to complete a CPD entry on the learning. It may also provide evidence for achieving competencies in the RPS Foundation or Advanced Pharmacy Frameworks. 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.

Information, guidance and links to further resources to support the current GP contract. 

This document highlights the CPPE learning opportunities available to all pharmacy professionals in primary care who are not eligible for one of the extended training pathways.

Information for adult social care services.

Guidance on preventing inappropriate polypharmacy at every stage of the patient journey.

This guideline covers good practice for managing medicines in care homes. 

Useful resources provided by the SPS.

Information, guidance and accredited training for care and health staff to support, protect and empower people who may lack capacity.

A guide to support pharmacists working in or with GP practices.

A guide that provides support and signposting to help pharmacists who are working in/with care homes.

An RPS report outlining the impact a pharmacist can have in a care home to reduce serious harm caused by inappropriate use of medicines, as well as reduce medicines waste.