Encouraging more pharmacists to become DPPs

After securing a place at NHS England to work as a Fellow in the primary care team in London, I was given the opportunity to run a project that could create a change in primary care. 

Owing to my previous experiences and roles as a clinical lecturer at the University of Reading and as a clinical pharmacist, I was aware of the lack of designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) required to help train up non-medical prescribers (NMPs) in practice and identified the need for a project that could help increase the number of DPPs in the system. Not only would this enhance patient care through increased NMP numbers but it would also help healthcare professionals to reach their potential. 

The first step was to carry out a scoping exercise across London to identify who had carried out the role of a DPP previously and, for those that had not, what the reasons were behind this. These findings then enabled me to demonstrate to key stakeholders that the main reasons why NMPs do not become DPPs was a lack of knowledge and confidence, not a lack of funding as first thought.

I was then able to progress my project into a substantial piece of work where I developed and delivered five educational sessions for all healthcare professionals on becoming a DPP using the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS’s) competency framework on DPPs, to which 130 learners signed up across London. 

Once the learners registered, they were put into groups to learn and develop the skills needed to become a DPP, irrespective of their professional group or whether or not they had previously been a DPP. The sessions were designed to be held online for 1 hour and 30 minutes, with a maximum of 28 learners in one group. This enabled a network of communities of practice to develop across London, so that learners could develop links where they could share further experiences and knowledge. 

Using case studies

The sessions contained case studies of training scenarios from diverse healthcare professional groups in different healthcare settings, allowing all attendees to either relate to this way of working or learn something new from an area they may have not previously practised in.

One case study looked at ways to help a trainee NMP who was not progressing in their training. This helped the learners demonstrate different methods of approaching the trainee NMP, having difficult conversations but also designing an action plan to help the NMP trainee achieve the goal of completing the course. To help go through this case study, the learners were taught different education learning theories, such as cognitivism and behaviourism, and how the application of these can help progress the learner based on the fact that everyone learns in different ways. The learners appreciated this as it was not something that they were given the opportunity to do previously. 

The learners were also given the opportunity to document their own progress following each session by highlighting their confidence and knowledge levels before and after the sessions. 

Out of the 130 learners who signed up, 120 learners successfully completed the course — an impressive 92%. The 8% who did not complete the course cited lack of time and lack of opportunity from their employers to carry out the role after finishing the course, hence opting out before completion.

Learner evaluation

Of those who completed the course, 67% (n=80) completed both pre- and post-questionnaires. These indicated that 90% of learners who attended the sessions did not feel as though they required any further education or training in relation to becoming a DPP and now had the knowledge that they required. Further analysis highlighted that all the professional groups showed an increase in confidence and knowledge. This not only related to just one professional group, which showed that the course piloted could be used to teach a range of healthcare professionals as a collaborative approach, as opposed to teaching the individual professional groups alone. 

We also found that those who had acted as DPPs previously said their confidence and knowledge increased at the same rate as those who had not been DPPs previously. This demonstrates that the course was beneficial to all learners, irrespective of their healthcare professional group and whether or not they had previously been DPPs. 

Overall, the course was considered a success for both the learners and myself. It helped incorporate problem-solving and teamworking skills that we are taught at an undergraduate level, while demonstrating how these skills are transferable and can be used in various ways.