Building the Foundation Pharmacist Portfolio
During the course of the year, Foundation Pharmacists will be expected to build a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate their competence of the attributes outlined in the RPS Foundation Pharmacist Framework (available below).
Prior to starting the programme, it is important for Foundation Pharmacists to be familiar with the tools that will aid them with their development throughout the programme, as they are the backbone to the portfolio that each Foundation Pharmacist is required to build.
Minimum requirements and timeline
Supervised Learning Events (SLE)
Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) has worked with HEE London and South East Pharmacy Team (working across London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex) to develop four new e-learning sessions, aimed at developing the knowledge and skills pharmacy educators require for supervising, assessing and evaluating pharmacy students in a variety of primary and secondary care settings. Although primarily aimed for educators the modules are also suitable for trainees on pharmacy programmes.
An SLE is an episode, organised in advance, where a supervisor assesses a trainee’s performance in the clinical or practice setting. It is a learning opportunity, which provides time for reflection and developmental feedback. There are several SLEs used in pharmacy programmes that can be used with different trainees in different sectors of care.
An introduction to SLE training modules is available below.
Mini-CEX = Mini Clinical Exercise
MiniCEX is a prospective observation of a practitioner providing pharmaceutical care for a patient new to the practitioner or a patient known to the practitioner prescribed new therapy. It involves practitioner / patient or practitioner / doctor or even practitioner / patient/ doctor interaction. MiniCEX Tool below.
CbD = Case-based Discussion
A CBD is a retrospective evaluation of input into patient care which should cover background understanding of disease, awareness of treatment goals and evidence-base and explanations for actual interventions made and management. The assessor can explore a number of different themes within a case. CbD Tool below.
DOPS = Direct Observation of Practical Skills
DOPS is a method similar to the mini-CEX that has been designed specifically for the assessment of practical skills and activities. These can be used in place of a mini-CEX in suitable rotations where developing process skills are essential e.g. clinically checking chemotherapy worksheets in aseptics or processing an enquiry in medicines information. A maximum of two DOPS can be used in place of MiniCEX within Stage 1 of the programme.
MRCF = Medication-Related Consultation Framework
MRCF is an observation focussing on consultation skills with a patient. MRCF Tool MRCF Appendix below. Training videos are available here: http://educatorhub.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/458481 and Consultation Skills for Pharmacy Practice.
Other Evidence
Depending on the area of work or the rotation being undertaken, Foundation Pharmacists may wish to include a variety of other evidence to support their development and demonstrate competence. The following examples provide an idea of what can be included but is not an exhaustive list:
- Accreditation logs such as medicines reconciliation, counselling, final checking
- Queries from on-call, dispensary and medicines information
- Witness testimonials and thank you emails
- Aseptic and QA worksheets and releasing products training
- Audits and quality improvement initiatives
- Presentations from teaching sessions and feedback/evaluation forms
- Feedback from mentoring students and pre-registration trainees
- Meetings attended (including those chaired)
Log of Interventions
Throughout both stages of the HEE LaSE KSS Foundation Pharmacist Programme practitioners are required to keep a log of day to day contributions to patient care. All contributions that result in a change to a prescription, and when advice or information is written in the patients care notes should be logged within the contribution to care log.
The log of interventions should be a much briefer record than the significant interventions but should contain sufficient information to enable the educational supervisor to gain a more rounded view of the foundation pharmacist’s work at ward level. Interventions could be recorded simply, the format is not important e.g. notebook, diary, spreadsheet. Suggested headers to the care log include:
- Date
- Intervention
- Outcome
- Comments / Reflection
Reflective Account
Reflection is an important process for personal and career development especially after an experience that has been challenging or if undertaking a task for the first time. A reflective account enables Foundation Pharmacists to think about what went well and how to deal with the request again, taking into consideration what they learnt from the initial experience.
Everyday a practicing Foundation Pharmacist will learn something, and from this adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Continuing Professional Development
As a registered pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council, you are required to assure patients and the public that you are safe and effective in practice, through the revalidation process. To save duplication, copies of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) entries used for GPhC revalidation can be submitted as evidence. These must be reviewed by your educational supervisor. Where possible the CPDs should relate to the learning outcomes of the programme. Access revalidation resources for pharmacy professionals here.
Supplementary Evidence
You may add other material to your portfolio if you feel it is appropriate evidence, which may be needed for specific competences within the foundation pharmacy framework, for example presentations given at your place of work, external meetings attended etc. More information can be found in the FS1 course handbook.
Significant Interventions
Significant interventions are examples of when a foundation pharmacist’s practice has made a significant impact on patient care at a particular point in time. Significant interventions will usually have improved the quality of patient care, or prevented patient harm. Significant Intervention Proforma below:
Assessments of Practice
Educational Appraisals
Educational appraisals are formal meetings that takes place between the Educational Supervisor and the Foundation Pharmacist every 6 months. The meeting should be used to go through the portfolio to ensure that the minimum portfolio standards are being met. It is also an opportunity to formally assess progress against the RPS FPF and go through feedback from peers and colleagues. The educational appraisal should help the foundation pharmacist plan for the next 6 months and identify and further learning needs.
At the end of the appraisal the Education Supervisor will be expected to rate the progress of the Foundation Pharmacist and the forms should be uploaded to the e-portfolio system.
Multisource Feedback Review
Most Foundation programmes require a form of multisource feedback otherwise known as 360-degree reviews or MiniTAB (mini-Team Assessment of Behaviour), which enables colleagues from a multidisciplinary team to provide feedback on how the Foundation Pharmacist is performing.
The multi-source feedback is an opportunity to provide examples of commendable practice but if there are areas of concern it is important to highlight this so the Educational Supervisor can explore this further. The Foundation Pharmacist can also undertake a self-assessment of themselves which can be compared to how other view their performance.