Advanced Specialist Pharmacist Critical Care
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Overview
Are you an enthusiastic, motivated, and dynamic Clinical Pharmacist with a passion for Critical Care? We have an exciting opportunity for one of two Advanced Specialist Pharmacists to provide expert clinical pharmacy input to our Critical Care Services.
This role is perfect if you are:
* Looking to develop your clinical skills within a well-respected, proactive multidisciplinary team
* Eager to manage and deliver a specialist clinical pharmacy service to Critical Care
* Interested in working towards credentialing for a consultant post while using your expertise as a non-medical prescriber across the Critical Care service line
If you’re looking for a position where you will be supported, challenged, and valued – with opportunities to contribute to research, service development, and patient outcomes at the highest level – we would love to hear from you.
Note: Candidates who meet the qualifications for this post but may not yet demonstrate the full proven knowledge or demonstrable experience required at Band 8a will still be considered for this role as a Band 7 to Band 8a progression opportunity. The successful candidate will receive the necessary support to achieve the required progression milestones and demonstrate the expected level of practice before progressing to an advanced specialist Band 8a role.
Main duties of the job
* This post holder will be responsible for the provision of a high-quality patient focused clinical pharmacy service for patients within the Critical Care Pharmacy Team.
* Undertake teaching and clinical supervision of pharmacy staff and other healthcare employees.
* Provide specialist clinical pharmacy services and advice to the clinical specialities, demonstrating a high level of clinical effectiveness.
* Develop a clinical interest within a chosen area of clinical practice to support clinical service to a specific group of patients within the service line.
* Work closely with the Lead Pharmacist for Critical Care & Surgery and Associate Chief Pharmacist for Clinical Services on the strategic development of clinical pharmacy services and establish clearly defined roles for pharmacist non-medical prescribers within critical care areas.
* Develop and manage the delivery of pharmacy services to ensure efficient use of resources and systems including monitoring drug expenditure, delivery of financial savings within the critical care areas primarily.
* Develop and build increased pharmacist presence into outpatient clinical areas as part of the rehab team.
Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as ‘Priority’ and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.
Working for our organisation
University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) NHS is the largest hospital on the Southwest Peninsula providing comprehensive secondary & tertiary care to a population of around 2,000,000 people who can access our specialist services including cardiothoracic surgery, kidney transplantation, neurosurgery, & the regional trauma Centre. Our specialist cancer treatments include bone marrow transplant, sarcoma surgery and hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancer surgery (not exhaustive). We work closely with our community partners delivering health & social care.
Our purpose-built 28-bed combined general and neuro intensive care unit admits over 1,600 patients each year. As an integral member of our multidisciplinary team, our Critical Care Pharmacists regularly use their non-medical prescribing (NMP) skills to make a real difference in patient care.
Over half of our ICU admissions are non-surgical, covering a broad range of specialities – from acute medicine, neurology, hepatology, and endocrinology to cardiology, haematology, renal, and respiratory medicine. Our ICNARC standardised mortality ratio is consistently below 1, and our last CQC inspection rated us ‘Good’.
We’re not just about clinical excellence – we’re innovators. As active members of the South West Critical Care Network Pharmacy Group, we lead research and quality improvement projects, including our recent work on post-ICU discharge follow-up, showcased at the EAHP Conference in Copenhagen (March 2025).
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
* Responsible to the Associate Chief Pharmacist Clinical Services for strategic planning and delivery of clinical pharmacy services to patients within Critical Care.
* Support the Chief Pharmacist / Deputy Chief Pharmacist / Associate Chief Pharmacist and Care Group Lead Pharmacist in developing, monitoring and reporting on drug expenditure and medicines budget and the delivery of financial savings as part of the pharmacy cost improvement programme.
* Development, implementation and update of clinical pharmacy policy in conjunction with senior pharmacists within the clinical pharmacy team and Critical Care.
* Work as a member of the Clinical Pharmacy Team, Critical Care Service Lines and wider UHP pharmacy team.
* Monitor, review and report on medicines related incidents within Critical Care.
* Provide highly specialist clinical pharmacy care to patients in the Critical Care areas and related units.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Pharmacy.
* Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Certificate.
* Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
* Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Diploma
* Non-medical prescriber (or must be willing to undertake this when requested)
* Current registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
* Member of the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA)
* Active member of Critical Care Group within UKCPA or equivalent pharmacist specialist interest group e.g. Pharmacist Member of Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine
Knowledge & Experience
* Excellent proven knowledge of clinical pharmacy and drug use with the area of Critical Care
* Demonstrable experience in a range of clinical specialties
* Excellent proven knowledge of general clinical pharmacy and drug use
* Proven skills in effective leadership, successful communication, negotiating, persuasion and influencing
* Proven knowledge of strategic care agendas
* Proven understanding of NHS priorities and how to apply these locally
* Excellent oral and written communication skills to address highly complex issues
* Report writing skills.
* Proven evidence of CPD
* Demonstrable experience of teaching, training and people development
* Demonstrable multidisciplinary working / ward round experience
* Proven knowledge of treatment pathways and commissioning of therapies for drug used with the area of Critical Care
* Previous demonstrable experience of providing support to the management of a hospital directorate or division
* Demonstrable senior pharmacy management experience within a recognised area of pharmacy practice
* Demonstrable experience of designing and developing pharmacy services
* Demonstrable experience in presenting research
* Demonstrable experience of providing diploma mentorship and/or pre-registration tutorship
* Demonstrable experience in budget management and staff management
Aptitude and Abilities
* Good communication skills, written and verbal, with ability to demonstrate fluency, clarity and effectiveness at all levels.
* Time Management Skills
* Demonstrate potential management ability
* Proven knowledge and understanding of financial issues
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY INCLUDING YOUR JUNK FOLDER.
If you need support with the online application process or require reasonable adjustments with the application and/or interview process please contact the Recruiting Manager for this post.
We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants about less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. We recommend contacting the manager of the role prior to applying and we commit to giving requests full consideration.
We welcome and encourage applicants who identify with all protected characteristics to apply for our roles. We believe that diversity strengthens our teams and improves our patients' experience. At UHP we aim to create an inclusive workplace and hospital where everyone feels they belong and included .
It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.
Providing false information is an offence & could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal/police action if an applicant is successful.
Please note that if you are successful in your application & accept the position you agree that the Staff Health and Wellbeing Department can access your health records from your current/previous employer in order to check the status of your inoculations & screening tests. This is an automated process & the information will only be used for these purposes prior to your taking up the position with us.
For Doctors Roles: Unsolicited CVs and Candidate Profiles/Details
University Hospitals Plymouth has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies. We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred HTE Framework suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles. In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Medical Workforce team. We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any other means than the official route above. Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.
Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.
Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further and will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol. In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to and thank you for your co-operation.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Name Natasha Moore
Job title Associate Chief Pharmacist - Clinical Services
Email address natasha.moore6@nhs.net
Telephone number 01752432273
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