My role as a second pharmacist, which I took up early this year, is to help develop the business with a focus on new and potential services. My boss has had the foresight to employ me in this exciting role at a time when the multiples are reducing their staffing levels. We have had lots of ideas and I realised that I needed to know a bit more about the processes involved in enhanced and commissioned services. One evening I logged on to the Actavis Academy and serendipity led me to the course "Community pharmacy service development". I like the freedom of online courses. I can do them at my own pace and can immediately click links to other resources or items of interest.
The course interface is uncluttered and easy to navigate, unlike some I have tried. I'm not one who is impressed by flash, slow loading sites coded by geeks — I just want the information nicely presented. Each page is numbered so you know where you are and how far you have to go.
The course content is great. Each page gives just the right amount of information. An introduction explores the importance of service development. It then turns to Government policy and the community pharmacy contract, its structure, why it was introduced, the service levels, the statistics of services provided and where funding has come from. I thought I was pretty conversant with all of this but there was quite a lot I hadn't considered. More ideas came from a section on the White Paper.
The final section explores how to "prepare the case" and stimulated me to think about who to talk to and to look at the pharmaceutical needs assessment, the role of clinical governance, costings and sources of funding. It also has a useful part on negotiation skills.
Overall, I was impressed with this course because I was given a picture of the skills and information I needed to think about. I spent about 45 minutes reading then did a short quiz and got a certificate. The quiz took me 7 minutes and 5 seconds. The site gives you details, such as times and dates of courses taken, scores, and percentages for the quizzes. And when you get questions wrong, you are directed to the relevant information.
This course gave me lots of ideas and I have already managed to get funding for projects from two sources I would otherwise never have considered. It is more commercially focused than many of the resources available so bears a much greater relevance to the community pharmacist. I would recommend this course to anyone who is looking to the future.—David Wildman, community pharmacist, Kettering, Northamptonshire
Overall rating: *****
Cost: £0
Time: About an hour
Enjoyment: *****
The Actavis Academy can be accessed at www.actavisacademy.com. If you would like to write a review for L&D contact Lin-Nam Wang, The Journal's senior contributions editor, (tel020 7572 2413; e-mail LandD@pharmj.org.uk
www.actavisacademy.co.uk