During the last 12 months there has been huge challenges for all and the whole

pharmacy department has risen to these challenges and played a vital role in
looking after very sick patients.

I have enjoyed my time so far in the trust and wish to continue to further develop a
career in hospital pharmacy. I wish to build upon my experience to date and further
develop my skills. These include organisation, empathy and effective
communication, which collectively enable me to work as part of a successful team
that delivers the best results for myself, patients and colleagues.  

I want to continue working at a Trust that provides a dedicated ward Pharmacy

service and allows Pharmacists to attend Consultant led ward rounds and deliver
ward-based pharmacy services.

In my current role working as a Band 6 Pharmacist at Bury NHS Trust (ELHT). I have
worked at all of the 4 hospital sites. I have gained first-hand experience of attending
Consultant led ward rounds and being part of the multidisciplinary team in the
management of patients. This has involved working closely with medical and nursing
colleagues to ensure medicine safety, ensuring antibiotics are prescribed as per the
trusts formulary, ensuring discharges are completed to a timely manner. Reducing
polypharmacy by reviewing elderly patients medication to prevent future hospital
admissions.

I admire the Trust’s values of putting the patient first, integrity, respect, promoting
positive change and serving the community. Adhering to these values I am enjoying
my time within the Pharmacy team to help the Trust further its vision of providing
safe, personal and effective care.
I would like to continue to improve and progress at this trust and achieve an NMP
qualification. I feel the Trust offers good support through every stage of personal and
professional development. The trust also offers pharmacists exposure to a range of
specialties due to its rotational programme. This has allowed me to develop my
experience and skills across surgery and medicine and has granted me the exposure
I have needed. I feel I am getting chances to increase my knowledge to help deliver
quality care for the patients.

I am passionate and enthusiastic about healthcare and keep up to date with the
latest drugs safety alerts, news and research. During my pre-registration year I
carried out the community Pharmacy NHS NSAID safety audit. This audit was aimed
to limit NSAID induced adverse effects hospital admissions and to prevent patient
harm ensuring the elderly were co-prescribed a gastro-protective agent alongside an
NSAID. This gave me experience in carrying out a professional audit and highlighted
the importance of prescribing a gastro-protective agent with an NSAID. In my current
role I have also been part of the antimicrobial stewardship audit which aims to
ensure correct antimicrobial prescribing occurs on the wards. I have also completed
several yellow cards reporting adverse drug reactions to the MHRA.

In my experience so far, I feel I have been able to cope in difficult and stressful
situations effectively. An example of this is when I have been working across two
wards due to understaffed due to unforeseen absences, I have applied my
organisation skills and positive attitude to remain calm and prioritise tasks across
both wards and ensured they were dealt with in a safe and efficient manner.
Furthermore, I was able to deal with tasks such as discharges, counselling patients
on their medication and liaising with prescribers on a daily basis. I am hoping to build
upon and continue to use the same attitude and ways of working to deal with difficult
situations if I get this post.

I am a self-motivated person with a positive attitude towards work and clinical

practice. I feel I am a good team player and enjoy working in the various teams to
ensure the best possible care and treatment for patients. As a valued member of the
team on ward rounds I am able to contribute and influence prescribing practices
such as choice of antibiotics and dosing of medication.
I am fluent in Urdu and Gujarati and have a Level 1 in sign language which I have
already put to good use when communicating with the diverse patient groups. This
has given me the ability to build good rapport with colleagues and patients,
especially those who may be vulnerable due to limited communication skills. To date
I have received many compliments from doctors, nursing staff and patients.

I have worked in teams throughout my working and academic life, which has enabled
me to deliver projects on time and to a high standard. As a community pharmacist I
was responsible for a team of dispensers and a counter-assistant which ensured by
working together we delivered a safe effective service. I feel that given the
opportunity and with appropriate training I will be able to again lead a team.

I have enjoyed mentoring a pre-registration pharmacist on the ward teaching and

supervising them carrying out the multiple roles on the ward including dealing with
medications queries, discharges, advise on prescribing to the multi-disciplinary team
and drug administration advice to nurses.

I have the ability to display a logical and analytical approach to problems and view
them from different angles to find a solution; however, I am also aware of my
limitations and when I need the help of my team. During my time in Community
Pharmacy on many occasions I was able to help provide solutions by suggesting
alternative medications using my own knowledge. An example of this was when
majority of hormone replacement therapy medication was out of stock. I contacted
the prescriber to prescribe an alternative medication using relevant reference
sources and guidelines. I used the learnings from my previous experience and my
professional judgement to act in the best interest of the patient and solve their
problems.
In my current post in situations of medication shortages I have been able to
recommend a suitable alternative and in cases where I was unable to suggest I
would consult a senior colleague for their advice. With each episode I am able to
build my knowledge base.
During my time as a hospital pharmacist I am consistently reflecting on my own
practice on a day to day basis with the aim being to continuously improve. I
undertake my continuing professional development as per registration. I also have
been working upon the feedback and learning points highlighted in my appraisals.

I have been undertaking regular on call sessions. This has been another area of
learning opportunities and where I have to learn to deal with complex clinical issues
out of hours, sometimes with limited information.
I have been flexible to the needs of the department during the difficult Covid-19 period.
This included moving from non-Covid to Covid wards on a regular basis. Moving hospital
sites covering sick colleagues. I have also taken on an extra oncall shift due to sickness. I
have also taken no sick leave during the last 12 months.

I am now going into my second year of post graduate diploma. I was able to manage my
work load and successfully meet my deadlines for all my assignments during my first year.

To conclude, I believe continuing working within the Pharmacy department at ELHT will help
me enhance my skills further to become a better Pharmacist. I believe I have the qualities to
be successful in your Pharmacy department and add real value to the team to continue to
deliver higher standard of patient care. The Trust’s values, combined with the above-
mentioned reasons, make ELHT the perfect place for me to build my career as a Hospital
Pharmacist.