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Background The Acute Care Assessment Tool ( ACAT) was developed as a workplace-based assessment ( WPBA) for trainee performance whilst working in acute medicine. Here, we discuss the multi-professional potential of ACAT through a pilot with foundation and senior hospital pharmacists. Context The pharmacy profession is engaging meaningfully with foundation training for pharmacists akin to doctor foundation training, and has launched a post-foundation recognition scheme as a route to advanced generalist or specialist practice. Foundation training has included the adoption of familiar WPBA, such as the mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini- CEX) and case-based discussion (CbD). However, mini- CEX and CbD are 'snapshot' assessments, and we identified a need for the assessment of practice over a short period of time. A local director of medical education suggested ACAT. Innovation Permission was gained from the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians to adapt the ACAT to form the 'Pharmacy ACAT'. Adaptations were based on the two current Royal Pharmaceutical Society competency frameworks used for foundation and post-foundation practice. The 'Pharmacy ACAT' was piloted across three acute hospitals (known as 'Trusts') in London for foundation trainees, and was found to be broadly acceptable in terms of time and was valued for feedback, particularly for foundation pharmacy trainees. Senior pharmacists at the single pilot site were more sceptical. Implications We believe that the 'Pharmacy ACAT' should be considered for routine use in pharmacy foundation training in hospital and community practice as it 'plugs a gap' in the current scheme of WPBA, by allowing the assessment of a short period of practice as opposed to a snapshot. It also has potential for use at undergraduate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the polypharmacy, the concurrent use of multiple medicines which can increase the risk of drug interactions and medicine-related problems. It states that pharmacists are usure as to how to or who should take action to address inappropriate polypharmacy in the hospital setting, but are agreeing that guidance with doctors can speed up care.

Despite well-being initially being high on the agenda for UK health organisations, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted significant gaps around provision for well-being of pharmacists in the UK. The COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) environment exposed pharmacists to mental, physical and emotional challenges, including high levels of patient mortality., Objectives: To provide an account of the experience of pharmacists working within an ICU at a large National Health Service hospital who attended reflective practice sessions throughout the first wave of the pandemic., Method: A retrospective, cross-sectional design was used to gather information from eight participants who had attended nine, 30-minute weekly reflective practice sessions. Participants were invited to complete a 10-item online self-report questionnaire. The responses from the questionnaire were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis., Results: Seven participants completed the self-report questionnaire. Thematic analysis of responses identified four themes: (1) permission : both professional and personal 'permission' was necessary for participants to be present for the reflective practice sessions and to attend to their own well-being; (2) containing safe space : reflective practice sessions offered a consistently secure environment from which to explore topics which created challenge, personally and/or professionally; (3) connectedness : the impact of these sessions on participants' relationships with other attendees, as individuals and the group as a whole; and (4) emotional experience : increased awareness of developments around their expression, processing and management of emotion as a result of attending the sessions., Conclusions: This study provides new and important insights into the use of reflective practice for pharmacists working in an ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings demonstrate heterogeneity in the experience of distress, the need to support the pharmacy profession, and the need to provide opportunities for staff to connect safely with colleagues during such crises. The impact of organisation-led support for the pharmacy profession is discussed as a future direction of research., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© European Association of Hospital Pharmacists 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)