Terry White Chemmart Health - Designated Prescriber

Queensland Health is facilitating the delivery of two community pharmacy pilots, with the aim of improving access to high-quality primary healthcare services for Queenslanders. The Queensland community pharmacy scope of practice pilot enables participating pharmacists to undertake additional medicines management and prescribing activities.

Designated Prescriber (DP) for pharmacists completing full scope of practice training

The designated prescriber (DP) will facilitate the pharmacist’s understanding of the entire prescribing cycle. This includes the application of person-centred prescribing strategies, which encompass understanding the patient’s needs, exploring management options, agreeing on a medication plan, communicating and documenting treatment decisions effectively, and reviewing treatment outcomes.

Requirements:

• a registered health practitioner with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and appropriate Board and have no undertakings or restrictions on their practice.
• authorised to prescribe medications with at least 1 year of unsupervised and independent prescribing experience
• a practitioner actively working in a prescribing role that reflects the scope of practice of the pharmacist
• no actual or potential conflicts of interest between the pharmacist and the designated prescriber.

Responsibilities:

• meet regularly (virtual or face to face) to review and discuss the experiential learning activities that the student has documented in their logbook.
• discuss and mentor the student about the benefits of prescribing in a collaborative healthcare team environment according to the National Prescribing Service Competency Framework
• discuss activities that will fill the gaps in the student’s prescribing competencies
• as a DP it is encouraged that you ensure your student has exposure to a range of observed consultations or clinical scenarios which you may facilitate with colleagues, or you can delegate to other prescribers. Junior medical staff, nurse practitioners, physiotherapist prescribers, credentialled diabetes educators can all add benefit to the clinical development of your student and their exposure to the various healthcare providers.
• as a DP you are not required to directly supervise the 120 hours of learning activities (documented in the student’s logbook), but you are required to provide guidance, discussion and reflection based on the student’s clinical experiences.
• OPTIONAL: allow the students to join you in your practice (with your patient’s consent) to observe you undertaking consultations, (information gathering, therapeutic decision making, communicating your decision, and monitoring and follow up)

You may mentor between 1-8 pharmacists at a time.

For further information or to apply please contact Kate Gunthorpe, Pharmacist Implementation and Change Specialist via email at Kate.Gunthorpe@twcmhealth.com.au.

Further information regarding the Queensland community pharmacist pilots is available here.