Advanced Pharmacy Practice

What is advanced practice?

Advanced practice is a broad term describing a spectrum ranging from the early post-foundation years, extending through to consultant level practice. There are different routes to advanced practice after foundation training. Some pharmacists will undertake post-graduate certificate, diploma or degree either in a generalist (e.g. primary care) or specialist (e.g. oncology, clinical education) area.

Other educational resources are available to support pharmacists instead of completing a programme at a higher education institute, including Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Faculty, NHS Leadership Academy and Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education.

Routes into advanced practice

The North School of Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation have produced the Navigating Advanced Pharmacist Practice Handbook to support advanced practice for pharmacists, employers and pharmacy leaders. This handbook resource recognises the different routes into and through advanced practice.

A number of training and development courses funded by the Pharmacy Integration Fund are available for individual pharmacists and are suitable for developing advanced practice. These offer flexible and accessible learning solutions, allowing those enrolling to study at work, or in their own time.

Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) is a potential route for experienced pharmacists. This level of practice is characterised by a high degree of autonomy and complex decision making. This is underpinned by a master’s level qualification, or equivalent, that encompasses the four pillars: clinical practice; leadership and management; education; and research, with demonstration of core capabilities and area-specific clinical competence. ACP embodies the ability to manage clinical care in partnership with individuals, families and carers.

RPS Core Advanced Pharmacist Curriculum

What is the RPS Core Advanced Pharmacist Curriculum?

Read the RPS Advanced Pharmacy Framework here.

The RPS core advanced curriculum describes the entry-level standard for advanced pharmacists working in any patient focussed role. It bridges the gap between the RPS post-registration foundation curriculum and the RPS consultant pharmacist curriculum. It provides a credentialing assessment to assure pharmacists have the capabilities to practise at an advanced level.

The curriculum has been developed collaboratively to create an advanced pharmacy workforce to meet future patient and service needs. The outcomes are aligned to multi-professional advanced frameworks whilst articulating the pharmaceutical knowledge and skills required specifically of advanced pharmacists.

In line with other RPS post-registration curricula it is made up of five broad domains aligned closely to the four pillars of practice:

DOMAIN

1

Person-centred care and collaboration

DOMAIN

2

Professional practice

CLINICAL PRACTICE

DOMAIN

3

Leadership and management

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

DOMAIN

4

Education

EDUCATION

DOMAIN

5

Research

RESEARCH

How is this different to RPS Faculty?

RPS Faculty is a retrospective recognition of the advanced level of practice of a pharmacist working in any role. It is only open to RPS members.

RPS core advanced credentialing is a prospective assurance assessment for pharmacists working in patient-focussed roles. This means it assures pharmacists have the entry-level capabilities to deliver advanced level care to patients. It is open to all pharmacists including non-RPS members.

STEP 01

Getting familiar with the standard

STEP 02

Identifying your learning needs

STEP 03

Understanding how you will be assessed

STEP 04

Uploading existing evidence to your portfolio

STEP 05

Creating new evidence for your portfolio, including Supervised Learning Events (SLEs)

View the Getting started with your RPS Core Advanced credentialing journey webpage for more information on the 5 steps.