Professional skills
It takes more than clinical knowledge and technical skills to reach your full potential in pharmacy practice. Professional skills — such as teamwork, leadership, communication and decision making — are equally important for delivering high-quality patient care.
Our collection of professional skills and career development resources is informed by the RPS’s Post-registration Foundation Curriculum and the Core Advanced Pharmacist Curriculum, organised into nine categories.
New content is added regularly so if you have suggestions for further topics that you would like to see included, please contact the research and learning team.
Career and professional development
How to design optimal induction pathways for pharmacy professionals
How to support pharmacists during hospital rotations
All hail, the specialist generalist!
How to prepare for the Oriel national foundation trainee pharmacist recruitment scheme
Supporting recently qualified hospital pharmacists: advice for the first few years
Andreea Blaga
Communication and consultation skills
How to provide patients with safety-netting advice
How to navigate and ensure effective patient communication about medicines shortages
How to identify and manage prolonged acute and chronic cough in pre-school children
How to identify red-flag symptoms and refer patients appropriately
Introduction to the prescribing consultation
Communication techniques for prescribing
How pharmacy teams can provide health education
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Architecture exhibit aims to start a discussion on the use of space in community pharmacies
Addressing microaggressions to deliver cultural competence in pharmacy
How to improve cultural competence in pharmacy practice
‘We are all fighting something’ — shattering the silence on hidden disabilities in pharmacy (audio)
MPharm awarding gap: how can BAME students be better supported? (audio)
MPharm awarding gap: the BAME student experience at university (audio)
Making the MPharm fairer: what can be done about the ethnicity awarding gap?
Leadership, management and teamwork
Entrustable professional activities: a new approach to supervising trainee pharmacists on clinical placements
How to design optimal induction pathways for pharmacy professionals
How to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team
How to support pharmacists during hospital rotations
Supporting recently qualified hospital pharmacists: advice for the first few years
Educational supervision, assessment and feedback for pharmacists
How to write a business case for a new pharmacy service
Practice-based skills
How to navigate and ensure effective patient communication about medicines shortages
How to identify red-flag symptoms and refer patients appropriately
Performing a physical examination on a patient when prescribing
Principles of effective history taking when prescribing
How to support pharmacists during hospital rotations
How to perform accurate medicines reconciliation
Writing patient notes: a guide for pharmacists
Prescribing
Principles of diagnostic reasoning
Performing a physical examination on a patient when prescribing
Introduction to clinical assessment for prescribers
Test yourself: the 2023 CPD and Learning quiz
Principles of effective history taking when prescribing
Test yourself: communication and person-centred practice for prescribing
Introduction to the prescribing consultation
Professional judgement and decision making
Principles of diagnostic reasoning
How to approach challenging scenarios in primary care pharmacy
Complex decision-making for foundation and newly qualified pharmacists
How to use clinical reasoning in pharmacy
Approaching difficult situations: how to have challenging conversations
How to apply evidence to practice
Critical appraisal: how to evaluate research for use in clinical practice
Research skills and experience
Top ten articles of 2023 from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s research journals
Ethnicity research gap: is pharmacy the key to making trials more representative?
Beyond RCTs: the real-world evidence revolution
Using project management principles to improve research projects
Studies of public opinion bring the dangers of laxity to light
What does it take to become a consultant pharmacist?
How to apply evidence to practice
Service innovations and improvement
Replacing automated medication dispensing machines: how to plan and implement change when equipment reaches end of life
Case-based learning: social prescribing and pharmacy professionals
Adopting a quality improvement approach to patient safety incidents
How to conduct a clinical audit in six steps
Quality improvement in pharmacy practice
How to write a business case for a new pharmacy service
