Non-Medical Prescribing (V300)

You'll already be a registered nurse, midwife, pharmacist, physiotherapist, paramedic, chiropodist, podiatrist, dietician, diagnostic or therapeutic radiographer, and this course may interest you because there is a recognised need for you to prescribe within your clinical practice.

On successful completion of this course, you can be annotated/registered with your Professional Body as an independent and supplementary prescriber* and you'll be qualified to prescribe medications within your field of competence.

Independent prescribers are practitioners responsible and accountable for the assessment of patients with previously undiagnosed or diagnosed conditions and for decisions about the clinical management required, including prescribing.” BNF, 2020 (https://bnf.nice.org.uk/guidance/non-medical-prescribing.html)

Supplementary prescribing is a partnership between an independent prescriber (a doctor or a dentist) and a supplementary prescriber to implement an agreed Clinical Management Plan for an individual patient with that patient’s agreement.” BNF, 2020 (https://bnf.nice.org.uk/guidance/non-medical-prescribing.html)

Important notes

• * Passing this module does not automatically qualify you to prescribe. The University is authorised to run this preparatory module and recommend appropriate practitioners for the qualification. Your professional body (NMC, HCPC or GPhC) retains the right to approve or refuse this recommendation.
• Diagnostic Radiographers and Dieticians can only prescribe as a Supplementary Prescriber.
• You must ensure that you check which medications you can prescribe according to UK legislation and your own professional registration (https://bnf.nice.org.uk/guidance/non-medical-prescribing.html)

How you'll learn

This module takes place over two trimesters, including 25 six-hour academic study days (26 days for pharmacists).

• Seventeen of the study days are self-directed activities, with short video lectures and active learning exercises. This is supported by weekly video seminars, tutorials and regular formative feedback.
• Pharmacists will also have one day of clinical skills training supported by activities to be completed in the practice setting.
• One day for exams at the end of the first trimester.
• The remaining six days will be taken towards the end of the second trimester and will give you the opportunity for self-directed research into your area of specialist practice.
• These 25 (or 26) days are mandated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC), and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). You will be expected to provide evidence that they have been taken.
You'll also need to complete 72 hours of clinical practice (90 hours for pharmacists) to demonstrate clinical competency in consulting, diagnosing and prescribing for service users.

Core content

The core teaching will involve an introduction to pharmacology and the generic aspects of prescribing. Although we don’t cover therapeutic indications, we’ll refer to common drugs throughout the module to demonstrate key pharmacological principals. The taught content will include:

• application of consultation and clinical assessment within the prescribing context
• critical application of knowledge of Pharmacology – pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics
• prescribing for special risk groups including children, the elderly, pregnancy and breastfeeding
• drug interactions and adverse events
• holistic approach to prescribing including the biopsychosocial aspects of prescribing
• effective medicines management
• prescribing within the inter-professional team
• legal and ethical issues, including professional accountability and impact on prescribing.

In addition to the generic taught content you’ll have the opportunity to learn about medications specific to your specialist area of practice; through your clinical practice hours and six days of self-directed academic research.

Practice assessment

In partnership with your employer, you must identify a suitable Practice Assessor.

A Practice Assessor is a registered healthcare professional with a prescribing qualification and a minimum of three years’ recent prescribing experience in this role; eg a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or other professionally registered, V300 trained independent prescriber.

Nursing and midwifery applicants

• In conjunction with your Practice Assessor, you must identify suitable Practice Supervisor(s) to support your practice learning.
• Practice Supervisors should also be registered V300 independent/supplementary prescribers (or equivalent) with at least one year of experience in this role.
• In exceptional circumstances (for example, where there is limited access to non-medical prescribers) nurses/midwives can request from the module lead that the same person acts as both Practice Assessor and Practice Supervisor (https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/standards-for-post-registration/standards-for-prescribers).

Pharmacists and allied healthcare professionals:

• The Practice Assessor role is referred to as the “Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP)” by the GPhC and HCPC.
• The DPP can undertake the role of both Practice Assessor and Practice Supervisor. However, students are encouraged to seek one or more Practice Supervisors for a more diverse learning experience. (https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/sites/default/files/document/standards-for-the-education-and-training-of-pharmacist-independent-prescribers-january-19.pdf) (https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-relevant-to-education-and-training/standards-for-prescribing/)

As an NMC or HCPC registrant you will need to demonstrate a minimum of 72 hours of supervised clinical practice, at least 22 hours of which must be with your Practice Assessor.

As a GPhC registrant you will need to demonstrate a minimum of 90 hours of supervised clinical practice, at least 28 hours of which must be with your Practice Assessor.

The remaining clinical hours must be spent with a Practice Supervisor (see above).

Your Practice Assessor, along with your Academic Assessor (module tutor or module lead) is responsible for signing you off as a competent and safe prescriber. As such you will need to make sure you keep accurate records of your clinical placement hours.

Assessment

Your success on this programme will be determined on the basis of:

1. A practice assessment document consisting of:

• a practice log demonstrating the minimum required practice clinical supervision hours
• an assessment of competency against the Royal Pharmaceutical Society single competency framework (2016) which has been adopted as the common standard for all independent prescribing programs (NMC, 2018; HPCP, 2016; GPhC, 2019)
• completion of a Clinical Management Plan (CMP) to demonstrate an understanding of supplementary prescribing.

Pharmacist students must also undertake a clinical OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) of a patient under supervision of their Practice Assessor. This must be moderated by the Academic Assessor in person or by live video link.

2. A calculations examination:

• 30-minute unseen examination (remote electronic exam)
• 100% pass mark will (GPhC, 2019; NMC, 2019).

3. An unseen pharmacology examination:

• 90-minute unseen examination (remote electronic exam)
• 80% pass mark (GPhC, 2019; NMC, 2019).

4. A critical case study:

• a 2,000-word critical analysis essay based on a patient prescribing episode. This can be either an Independent Prescribing Episode or a Supplementary Prescribing Episode (depending on how your health care professional body allows you to prescribe)

Please note that demonstration of unsafe practice in any of the assessments will result in a referral (second attempt required) for NMC and HCPC students or automatic failure (no second attempt allowed) for GPhC students.