Richard Evans completed the two year NHS Pre-Registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician programme in 2011.He joined the Apprenticeship scheme after a period of travelling. Having previously worked in the manufacturing industry, he had some good skills to bring to the NHS. Richards shares some of his experiences.
Prior to starting the Level 3 NHS Apprenticeship programme, Gavin had been working as a level 2 dispenser in a community pharmacy for over a year, before which he had undertaken a full-time course at college.His community pharmacy employer recommended the Pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician programme, which he subsequently started at Sheffield College. While the course came highly recommended, he states that he gained more from it than initially expected.
Emma Handley is one of our latest trainees to complete the two year NHS Pre-Registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician programme and she took the time to share some of her experiences.
Mersey Care NHS Trust has an ambition to be recognised as the leading organisation in the provision of mental health care, addiction services and learning disability care, with quality, recovery and wellbeing at the heart of everything it does. As such the Trust has completely transformed its staff induction process, developing a unique programme in January 2014 that focuses on embedding its culture and values into the hearts and minds of staff.
In 2013 the clinical skills and simulation team at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (PAHT) reviewed their existing training package regarding medicines management. Concerns were raised when some members of staff, who had made drug errors on the wards, were merely referred back to the same theoretical session they would have had previously. Impact evaluations revealed that existing theoretical sessions alone did not identify and challenge poor practice or reflect the drug errors happening in clinical practice.
Healthcare Science Apprenticeships The scheme created by Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber to develop a new training route for Bands 2 - 4 in Healthcare Science. Apprentice medical laboratory assistants, Rachel Taylor and Nathan Baldwin, work for laboratory medicine while Amy Bond and Amy Martin have been assigned to both Neurophysiology and Cardio-Respiratory in a brand new apprenticeship role.
Tackling Youth UnemploymentWith the aim of tackling youth unemployment head on, The Prince’s Trust has recently launched a new initiative aimed at supporting young people into the many and varied opportunities which exist in the health and social care sectors. "Get into the NHS" is an intensive short course offering formal training, work experience; personal development and progression mentoring to young people aged 16-25.
Aintree University NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with Edgehill University has developed a Supporting Learners in Practice (SLiP) multi-professional workshop which is designed to prepare clinical staff to support students within the work environment. This workshop is delivered to a wide range of staff from nurses through to dieticians, radiologists, scientists, physiotherapists, speech andlanguage therapists, and assistant practitioners.SLiP workshops aim to provide clinical staff with the necessary skills to support learners in practice.
In May 2013 Wrightington Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust launched its Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional Strategy, outlining its vision for this group of staff. Recognising the many challenges that are faced by staff, the ethos behind the strategy is a return to the fundamentals of care to reduce harm to patients.With this in mind, the Trust’s practice education facilitators (PEFs) considered how best to reinforce the fundamental values of nursing with students who access the Trust for practice learning.
In October 2010 a proposal was made by a multiagency group of Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP), the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Cheshire West and Chester Council, to place a specialist practitioner in mental health into an integrated discharge team.The aim of introducing this role was to facilitate the timely, safe discharge of patients over 65 years of age with possible dementia, delirium, or mental health issues, who would otherwise experience increased length of stay or delayed discharge from hospital.