2.1.4 Standards and guidance

Question 1

Regulatory and professional standards and guidance have the same overarching purpose:

Answer 1

To provide a framework that helps ensure good care focused on patients.

Patient-centred care should be at the heart of everything that pharmacists and pharmacy teams do. Being a pharmacy professional is about having the right skills, knowledge, attitude, behaviour and judgement to help ensure good-quality outcomes for patients.

Question 2

To inform the care you provide and your decision making you should:

Answer 2

• Consider what is in the best interests of the patient
• Be guided by your education and training and ongoing CPD
• Consider the standards and guidance (both regulatory and professional) that are relevant to your situation
• Understand the legal framework in which you are operating.

Question 3

The following GPhC regulatory standards and guidance have been reproduced, with the permission of the GPhC, as appendices 4-9.

Answer 3

Standards for pharmacy professionals
Standards for registered pharmacies
Guidance on confidentiality
Guidance on consent
Guidance on raising concerns
Guidance on religion, personal values and beliefs.
(check Diagram 2)

These documents are subject to change and review by the GPhC and the latest versions can be obtained from the GPhC website www.pharmacyregulation.org.

Additional standards and guidance can be obtained from the GPhC website including the following:

Conflicts of interest
Duty of candour
Female genital mutilation: mandatory duty for pharmacy professionals to report
Pharmacist prescribers
Preparing unlicensed medicines
Professionalism online
Providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet
Maintaining clear sexual boundaries
Religion, personal values and beliefs
Safe and effective pharmacy teams
Standards for the initial education and training for pharmacists
Equality guidance for pharmacies.

Question 4

Question under RPS PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE: Are professional standards mandatory?

Answer 4

No, but they are developed and owned by the profession. They set out what constitutes ‘good’ in terms of practice, systems of care and working practices. Pharmacy professionals that are following professional standards set by the RPS can have confidence that they are meeting the regulatory standards set by the GPhC.

Question 5

RPS professional standards and frameworks include:

Answer 5

• Competency framework for prescribers
• Competency framework for designated prescribing practitioners
• Daffodil Standards for end of life care
• Error reporting standards
• Homecare services standards
• Hospital pharmacy standards
• Optimising medicines in secure environments (1: Immigration removal centres; 2: Prisons, young offenders institutions and secure training centres)
• Polypharmacy
• Safe and secure handling of medicines
• Virtual wards.

Question 6

RPS guidance covers the following topics:

Answer 6

• Career, professional and personal development
• Clinical
• Patient safety
• Medicines
• Pharmaceutical care
• Professional pharmacy practice
• Research skills.

An A-Z index of our key publication topics can be found on the RPS website: www.rpharms.com alternatively you can search by topic area.

The RPS and GPhC joint statement, ‘Using standards to help provide safe and effective care for members of the public’, provides details on the importance of using and applying professional standards. This statement can be found on the RPS website at www.rpharms.com.