Numark Pre-reg Students Get To Grips With Diabetes And Hypertension:

 

Earlier this month, Numark pre registration students undertook the latest stage of their training programme.  With workshops in Manchester and Tamworth, and students traveling from as far afield as Glasgow and London, the course this year has 30 students enrolled.   

 

Day 4 of the Numark pre-registration programme covered Diabetes and Hypertension, two of the most common chronic conditions in the UK and ones where pharmacists are ideally placed to add value to patients.  The workshop focused on how the students could use the clinical knowledge they gained at university and transfer it into practical skills which will help them in their future career. 

 

Jane Lumb, Numark’s training manager, said:  “During the day students got opportunities to get hands on with equipment such as blood glucose monitors.  University teaches the students about the clinical presentation of the conditions and treatment pathways, but does not tell them how to explain to a patient how to calibrate a blood glucose monitor or how to talk to them about their condition.  That’s where the Numark programme comes in. In the hypertension session, students got a chance to practice taking each other’s blood pressure - a skill which is directly transferable back in their pharmacies. 

 

They refreshed their clinical knowledge on hypertension and gained an understanding of how pharmacy can impact directly on patient care. Pharmacy is rightly becoming more service driven and we recognise that the pre-reg year is vital in shaping the pharmacists of the future and equipping them with the skills they need in the changing marketplace.  The Numark programme allows independents to offer the same level of training and development to their pre-regs as the multiples do and allows them compete more effectively for the very best candidates.” 

 

Numark launched the first structured training scheme available to independent pharmacists in 1995 to assist its members in formally training their pre-registration staff.  The scheme compliments the performance standards programme from the RPSGB and has been designed to cover a range of topics and clinical areas from the community pharmacy perspective.  The programme consists of a series of eight training days throughout the year. Each workshop will be include pre and post course work to add further context.  

 

In addition to the training days, students will attend a two-day residential course which provides an introduction to management skills as well as first aid training from the St John Ambulance.