The UWE Prescribing Team consist of 15 academic clinicians, NHS managers and professional services staff, who have a deep conviction in the importance of multi-professional prescribing training. The team designs and delivers multi-professional prescribing training to a range of clinicians including pharmacists, nurses, midwives, paramedics, dietitians, radiographers, podiatrists, and physiotherapists.
The team works within the School of Health and Social Wellbeing at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It is the largest provider of prescribing education in the UK, training more than 447 clinicians every year who provide care to patients in 752 healthcare organisations across the South West of England and beyond. The team is highly diverse, but the members share a common goal to provide outstanding prescribing training, enhance patient safety, support NHS health and wellbeing agenda and build capacity within organisations to support clinical supervision and training of healthcare professionals.
The team’s work focuses on designing and delivering a truly multi-professional prescribing curriculum that is sufficiently generic to help clinicians achieve the necessary prescribing competencies, but at the same time, is sensitive to the varying strengths and vulnerabilities of each profession. The diversity of clinical backgrounds, experiences and roles within the team boosts creativity and enhances students’ experience. The team received three commendations from the Nursing & Midwifery Council for the work undertaken with cosmetic nurse bodies to create a framework for the selection and preparation of applicants from this sector; the clear and comprehensive support provided by the staff to students; and the impressive work undertaken with service users in researching pain, which could usefully be extended as a model for engagement with service users across other modules.
The team also developed and implemented a pioneering model to train prescribers to become supervisors and assessors, to expand and sustain capacity to support students in clinical settings. The model has been implemented widely across the South West, and has been praised by Health Education England. The team members appreciate and leverage the pool of expertise and experiences within the team to support each other to pursue interests and roles outside of the team.