The windscreen wiper (yes my car only has one) was hypnotically moving back and forth as I waited for the Bournemouth to Swanage car ferry to get me across Poole harbour for the start of my summer holiday. It was 10am, 12 degrees centigrade and lashing down with rain. I opened a flask of coffee and wondered why I had put sandals on that day (no not with white socks). At least I had managed to get my peer discussion written up before driving down the M3.
I’d followed the instructions carefully when writing it (I have been known for not reading exam questions properly). I gave the name of my peer, her role, organisation, contact number and email address. Then I wrote how my peer discussion had changed my practice for the benefit of service users – I began by explaining my role on a panel (committee) that I was part of, which assessed the education of schools of pharmacy, medicine, nursing and other healthcare courses. It was my role to provide advice on pharmacy professional education and help score undergraduate courses (bronze, silver or gold) by using a set methodology looking at lots of data and written submissions. In this case, the other members of the committee were my service users and the advice I gave them was hopefully beneficial as it would support robust decision making and awarding the right medal!
My peer RX had asked in the peer discussion how I knew I was up to date in order to provide appropriate advice. RX had also asked me what the other panel members thought about my input to the panel. So, I went away after our session and re-read the initial education training standards (and the proposed ones) for pharmacy as well as the standards for medicine and nursing. This helped me understand approaches across the professions (there were similarities). I also read some research about pharmacy students’ readiness for practice and education approaches that supported their entry into the profession. The panel had a discussion at the end of all our meetings about my role (and those of the other professional representatives) and described the input as very useful. All decisions were ratified - sometimes with a vote but usually following a discussion of the evidence presented. I had been able to highlight up to date practice and felt satisfied with the advice I had given.
The summer is now nearly over. RX has got a new job so I will need to change all her contact details in my peer discussion record. The car ferry broke down later that summer. I hope the GPhC website doesn’t have a broken drive shaft! I need the inter-webular to ferry my revalidation records off to them before too long…
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