The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) has developed a guide for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians on how to use the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) e-learning course on ‘supporting self care for minor ailments’.
The RCGP course was developed by PAGB, the Self Care Forum and the RCGP, as part of collaborative promotion of self care aimed at changing the culture of dependency in the NHS. Although the course is written primarily for GPs, it is recognised that it is essential for all healthcare professionals, including pharmacy, to be involved in the promotion of self care in order for widespread behaviour change among patients to take place. Of most significance is that there should be consistency between professionals on the self care aware approach they take and the information they give.
The CPPE guide is designed for use in conjunction with the RCGP e-learning course and is aimed at supporting pharmacy professionals by:
- providing instructions for accessing and using the RCGP e-learning course
- supporting pharmacy professionals to gain the most from the course
- providing contextual information for pharmacy practice
- supporting pharmacists to promote self care of long term and acute conditions
- promoting inter-professional working
- ensuring that pharmacy professionals have parity in terms of access to learning in order to deliver similar self care messages as other healthcare professionals.
Research suggests that for self care to become the norm it is essential that people receive good quality and consistent information about minor ailments. If doctors, nurses and pharmacists provide the same advice, for example, about the timescales that patients can safely self-treat for, it will help build people’s confidence to self care and prevent unnecessary visits to the GP.
To download the guide please click here
