Band 8a Specialist Pharmacist Prescriber - Community Mental Health

We are looking for a motivated, dynamic, and innovative individual, with a strong background in mental health pharmacy, to deliver a clinical pharmacy service to community mental health teams in the Bristol locality of the Trust. The post holder will be a fully integrated member of the community mental health teams they are linked with, providing specialist pharmaceutical expertise to the multidisciplinary team, service users and carers. The role will include a dedicated prescribing clinic, and the post-holder will hold their own caseload of service users. The scope of practice and location for this will be agreed, dependent on service requirements and candidate experience.

The successful candidate will ideally be a non-medical prescriber, with experience in mental health pharmacy, eager to advance their clinical and leadership skills further.

The AWP Pharmacy Service has a strong focus on developing staff to their full potential, and applicants that do not meet the full criteria of this role will be supported to access the training required to do so.

To support Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation in senior health and care roles, AWP is developing a positive action plan to ensure the widest and most diverse field of talent; so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people with a BAME background.

PS: Base will be confirmed on appointment.

The post includes on-call and some weekend and bank holiday working.

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist pharmaceutical expertise to multidisciplinary teams and answer medicines information enquiries appropriate to the level of the post which will involve literature searches and the production of oral and written responses.

Be responsible for clinically assessing service users, establishing a diagnosis and the clinical management required - prescribing or de-prescribing where necessary, as specified in a 'scope of practice plan', agreed with the line manager and medical supervisor.

Work as an independent non-medical prescriber within their scope of competence and in accordance with Trust policy, procedures and other evidence based guidance, taking full responsibility for the service user as well as the medicine prescribed.

Provide mental health specific advice and support to ICB Prescribing Advisers; primary healthcare professionals including GPs, pharmacists, dentists and consultants.

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.