The Pharmacy
Vocational Training
Scheme Stage 3 (VT3)
Frequently Asked Questions for
Trainees and Tutors
Version 1.5 April 2014
Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks is extended to Osman Saleem (Pre registration Pharmacist) and the various Project Managers
and Leads for the various Specialist Groups for facilitating development of this document.
About this document
Within this document there are general questions with answers about Stage 3 Vocational Training (VT3 Training)
and also more specific questions with answers about the various Specialist modules. There is also an FAQ
document about the VT e Portfolio and Stage 2 of Vocational Training which you may also wish to refer to. As
well as this there is a guidance document on the NES website that provides an overview of The Pharmacy
Vocational Training Scheme.
1|P a g e
Contents
Section 1 General questions about VT3 specialist training
p2
Q1 What is the pharmacy vocational training scheme Stage 3 (VT3)?
Q2 What is the purpose of Vocational Training (VT)?
Q3 What are the benefits of the training scheme for individual pharmacist?
Q4 How long will it take to complete the training?
Section 2 The VT3 Infection and Antimicrobial Stewardship module
p6
Questions about the competency framework and ePortfolio
p7
Questions about the resources listed on the NES website for the VT3
Infection and Antimicrobial Stewardship module
p 10
Further Questions
p 11
Section 3 The VT3 Pharmaceutical Care of Older People module
p 12
2|P a g e
Section 1 General questions about VT3 training
Q1 What is the pharmacy vocational training scheme Stage 3 (VT3)?
VT3 is a structured, work-based training experience for hospital pharmacists with more than 2 years experience
who wish to specialise within an area of pharmacy practice. The emphasis is on developing a portfolio which
demonstrates competence of the various tasks detailed within the specialist competency framework. The
training is addressed through directed learning, experience in practice and work-shadowing where appropriate.
Q2 What is the purpose of Vocational Training (VT)?
The purpose of the training scheme is to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary for
pharmacists who wish to develop more specialist skills and in particular clinical skills within a specific area of
practice e.g. infection and antimicrobial stewardship, older people, cancer, clinical trials, critical care,
rheumatology and public health.
Q3 What are the benefits of the training scheme for individual pharmacist?
Completing the training scheme ensures that the pharmacists achieve a well-structured specialist clinical
training within a specific clinical area. Being structured according to the Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) cycle, the training scheme will also help the pharmacist to meet the GPhC mandatory requirements for
CPD. Working with a specialist in the field (tutor and educational supervisor) the pharmacists will receive a very
focused specialist training with senior pharmacists working in the area of practice.
Q4 How long will it take to complete the training?
The training generally takes about 18 months to complete and is generally completed after the vocational
training scheme Stage 2 (VT2). However, this depends on the individual and the needs of the service. Some
trainees will take longer than this. If the trainee hasn’t undertaken VT2 training, this is fine but there are some
requirements to meet before they embark on their specialist training.
Q5 Who can register for the training?
The training scheme is open to all pharmacists with more than 2 years experience who wish to specialise or who
are working in a specialist area of practice within NHS Scotland. The trainees ideally should have completed VT2,
however this is not mandatory. Prior to application, the trainee must have the support of their designated line
manager. Also, trainees must have a tutor and/or an educational supervisor who is registered as part of the
scheme.
To register as a trainee for the scheme, please complete and submit an application that is available here.
3|P a g e
Q6 What are the pre-requisites (PRs) for the training scheme?
Trainees should have knowledge and understanding of the provision of pharmaceutical care to patients using
the documentation provided. They should also have the knowledge and understanding of the audit process, the
reporting of a Significant Event Analysis, critical appraisal, patient safety and risk management. Furthermore,
there are some further prerequisites depending on the specialist module. The requirements vary depending on
the specialist module. See the NES website for more information.
Q7 What will the training entail?
The training entails completing a variety of activities to demonstrate competence in the specialist area. There is
also underpinning knowledge in a variety of different formats to support the training. Trainees need to complete
the activities using a variety of different forms of evidence within their e Portfolio.
Q8 There are educational supervisors, tutors and mentors. What are the differences?
Educational supervisors are experienced senior pharmacists who are responsible for the trainee within a
specific specialist area of pharmacy practice. They may be located within a different Health Board area within
Scotland. They will not be expected to observe the trainees’ practice on a daily basis, but they should meet with
their trainees on a regular basis i.e. once a month, and record the meetings within the ePortfolio. They will help
the trainees to identify any development needs and provide any support of advice during their training. In
addition, they will also undertake both the formative and summative assessment of the trainee. They are
expected to attend the regular In Training Reviews (ITRs) for the trainees, the portfolio assessment and the final
assessment panel if required. Meetings should be held virtually where possible.
To become an Educational Supervisor for a Specialist VT3 Module, the applicant should have a minimum number
of years experience working as a pharmacist within the specialist area. For more information, please refer to
NES website .
Tutors are experienced pharmacists within a specialist area of pharmacy practice that help facilitating the
trainees’ training and assessing their development. Not all specialist training modules have tutors some only
operate with educational supervisors. Tutors are not expected to observe the trainees’ practice on a daily basis,
but they should meet with their trainees on a regular basis i.e. once a month, and record the meetings within
the ePortfolio. They will help the trainees to identify any development needs and provide any support or advice
during their training. Tutors are not expected to attend portfolio assessments or the final assessments but may
be asked to attend the ITRs if required. The ITRs are generally hosted by the educational supervisors of the
Specialist Interest Group (SIG).Meetings should be held virtually where possible.
The criteria for tutors are still under development. However, they are required to register with NES as part of
the training scheme, detailing their professional journey/experience to date, their training/mentoring
experience and their commitment to CPD within their application. Tutors are retrained approximately every 3
years when they come together to receive an update about the scheme and review evidence to ensure that they
‘calibrated’ with other tutors. For more information, please refer to NES website for more information.
4|P a g e
Mentors are pharmacists who have recently completed the training scheme. They may informally advise new
trainees and may share their experiences on completing the training. However, due to the novelty of VT3, there
are only a few mentors currently within the one specialist area.
Q9 How do trainees get started with the training?
To get started, trainees should first familiarise themselves with the NES Pharmacy website ( VT pages ) and the
personnel who are there to assist their training. Trainees should also access Portal the online booking system
and update their details if required. This will ensure that they are eligible to attend a variety of events that are
open to the VT3 trainees.
Once the trainees receive a username and password to access the ePortfolio, usually within one to two weeks
following the closing date of registration, trainees should start setting up their ePortfolio. To learn more about
how to set up the ePortfolio, please refer to FAQs about the VT ePortfolio. There is also a recording of an
introductory webinar about how to use the VT ePortfolio available within the NES Pharmacy website (VT pages).
While VT2 ePortfolio was used as a demonstration, the VT3 ePortfolio is very similar and it will be very helpful
for you to watch this webinar. Similarly, a sample VT2 ePortfolio is available here for you to view.
Username mcmillan4984
and password
=
olivermac!
As Oliver also has a VT2 e portfolio, you should select the VT3 training plan so that you can view the VT3
competencies that are available to Oliver.
Furthermore, trainees should also complete the induction information that is on the NES website.
Q10 What type of evidence do trainees need to collect?
Trainees need to collect a variety of different forms of evidence. There are Logs and Forms within e Portfolio.
GPhC CPD records are also to be collected as a form of evidence.
Within the Logs section of e Portfolio there are action and reflection logs as well as activity logs. Within the
forms section there are feedback forms and testimonial forms. There are also mini – CEX, Case based Discussion
(CbD), case study and care plan templates.
Q11 If I have completed a Stage 2 of The Pharmacy Vocational Training Scheme (VT2), what evidence can I
transfer to the Stage 3 of The Pharmacy Vocational Training Scheme (VT3 )?
The aim of VT2 training is to develop ‘generalist’ broad skills. The aim of VT3 training is to develop specialist
skills within a specific area of practice. For VT3 training you will be attached to a new programme and hence a
new competency framework and so you should develop new evidence at this more specialist level for inclusion
in your VT3 e Portfolio.
5|P a g e
Q12 What assessment will there be?
There are informal formative assessments that are held on a regular basis with the educational supervisors for
the specific area. These are In Training Reviews (ITRs). Your tutor or educational supervisor should also be
providing feedback on your evidence as you progress through training. This in itself is a formative assessment.
There is a portfolio assessment which is a final summative assessment. Pairs of assessors assess portfolios using
a marking schedule. If the trainee successfully passes the portfolio assessment, they are invited to attend the
final face – to – face assessment. The final assessment lasts approximately 1.5 hours and is when the trainee’s
portfolio is discussed in depth with an assessment panel. There is a specific marking schedule that has been
mapped to the various advanced level frameworks. Please see the NES Pharmacy website and the Guidance
document for further details.
Q13 What happens on successful completion of the training?
On successful completion of the training you will be awarded a certificate of completion of the specific module.
Q14 What happens if I am not successful in assessment?
If you are not successful at the portfolio assessment then you will be invited to resubmit your portfolio at the
next diet of assessments. If you are successful at the portfolio assessment but not successful at the final
assessment, then, you will be invited to attend the next set of final assessments using your current portfolio. The
final assessments are generally every 12 months (annually).
6|P a g e
The Pharmacy
Vocational Training
Scheme Stage 3(VT3)
Frequently Asked Questions for
Trainees and Tutors
The Infection and Antimicrobial
Stewardship module
7|P a g e
Section 2 Questions about the competency framework and ePortfolio
Q1 How many elements do I need to cover in this module?
You need to cover a total of 15 elements: the 11 core elements plus a choice of 4 from the 10 elective elements.
Q2 Which elements should I tackle first?
It is recommended that you start by covering Elements 1-4 initially: Introduction to antimicrobial stewardship;
Essential pharmaceutical microbiology incorporating resistance and immune function; Antimicrobial agents by
therapeutic class; and Healthcare associated infection. This will ensure that you have robust background
knowledge of the subject.
You can document the pharmaceutical care performance indicators from these elements at any time throughout
the training period as you come across appropriate patients.
Once you have covered the main points of Elements 1-4 you can then approach the rest in any order you prefer.
Q3 How many electronic documents do I need to produce for ePortfolio?
You require:
15 x Feedback forms - one for each element covering all the competencies included in the element.
A mixture of 15 pieces of evidence including: GPhC CPD entries, Reflective Essays and Action Plans. The
individual element will offer a choice of these as appropriate. Element 2 requires 2 different CPD/Reflective
Essay submissions while none of these are required for Element 11. GPhC CPD records can be uploaded to your
personal library.
A minimum of 6 Care Plans including at least 9 of the clinical/specialist elements being covered by the trainee.
6 Case Studies including at least 9 of the clinical/specialist elements being covered by the trainee and based
upon 6 Care Plans identified above.
4 Case based Discussions (CbDs) which either can be associated with the Care Plans already being used with the
Case Studies or can be associated with a separate Care Plan and then submitted in place of a Case Study as
evidence of the provision of pharmaceutical care if you already have your full quota of 6 Case Studies.
NB Each Case Study and CbD must be linked with a Care Plan
4 Mini Clinical Examinations (Mini - CEX) which should be conducted on a patient for whom the trainee has not
previously developed a Care Plan. The Mini - CEX can be used as an alternative to a Care Plan with Case Study
and/or CbD to demonstrate the provision of pharmaceutical care to patients within an element. The Mini - CEX
can be performed under the supervision of a senior/specialist member of the pharmacy staff or e.g. an
infectious diseases consultant as appropriate.
8|P a g e
1 or 2 Testimonials for Element 1. Performance indicators 1.4 and 1.5 can be covered in one Testimonial from
one senior member of the healthcare team, or if appropriate from two different senior healthcare professionals.
4 Records of Completion( MCQ Scores) Logs for Elements 2 and 10. Even if the trainee is fully conversant with
the content of the e-learning package and does not require to go through the package itself, they should
complete the MCQs as evidence and document their score and a brief summary of learning points using the
ePortfolio log.
2 Presentations with Training Plans covering Elements 4 and 11. (These are not e portfolio documents and
should be uploaded to your personal library).
The relevant number of completion forms for the individual elements within your competency framework.
Q4 How do I record evidence of submitting a Yellow Card if I have completed one?
When you are completing the Yellow Card, either on paper or online, make sure you do not include any patient
identifier material such as CHI numbers or dates of birth. You will have to include the patient's initials for the
MHRA. As any saved copy of a Yellow Card will contain the patient's initials, this cannot be uploaded as evidence
to ePortfolio. To record evidence of submitting a Yellow Card simply record brief details of the suspected
drug(s) and adverse reaction(s) in your CPD record, Reflective Essay or Case Study as appropriate indicating that
a Yellow Card was submitted.
Q5 If I am e.g. working in a remote and rural setting or otherwise do not have access to all the patient groups
in the elements which I have chosen, how do I provide evidence of pharmaceutical care performance
indicators?
For Elements 2 and 9 in the core section and Elements 12 to 14 and 16 to 21 of the elective section where it may
not be possible for all antimicrobial pharmacists to access a patient with these particular pharmaceutical care
requirements within the time allocated to complete the module, you do not need to complete a Care Plan, Case
Study, CbD or Mini - CEX. As an alternative you should discuss the specific pharmaceutical care needs for this
group of patients in your CPD or Reflective Essay explaining how you would expect to address such needs in
practice.
If you have trouble accessing a group of patients where this alternative option is not listed then please discuss
this with your Educational Supervisor and the Lead Pharmacist for Educational Development at NES.
Q6 What do I do if I need to use the CPD/Reflective Essay option for several elements to document my
understanding of pharmaceutical care issues and thus I do not have enough patient groups to allow me to
have 6 Care Plans covering 9 specialist/clinical elements and an additional 4 patient groups to use for Mini CEX as an alternative option for demonstrating the provision of pharmaceutical care?
If you do not have access to enough different patient groups to use the Mini - CEX option as an alternative to
developing a Care Plan/Case Study/CbD then you will need to identify a different patient within one of the
9|P a g e
elements for which you have already developed a Care Plan. This second patient can be used to demonstrate
your patient centred communication and problem solving skills employing the Mini - CEX.
If you are practising in a remote and rural setting you may wish to try to choose your elective elements to
maximise your ability to meet the basic requirements for Care Plans and Case Studies i.e. to try to make sure
that you can cover at least 9 elements in your Care Plans and Case studies.
Q7 Do my Case based Discussions (CbDs) have to be linked with the same Care Plans as my Case Studies?
No, within a specific element, if you have a Care Plan for a patient you can either use this with a Case Study
alone, a CbD alone or you can link a Case Study and CbD to the same Care Plan. So long as you produce 6 Case
Studies and 4 CbDs for the module, you may mix and match as you wish. This gives you the option to
demonstrate the provision of pharmaceutical care as a Case Study, CbD or Mini - CEX.
Q8 Why is it suggested that the 6 Care Plans and Case Studies should cover at least 9 specialist/clinical
elements within the module?
It is expected that there will be considerable overlap between the elements within the module e.g.: if you have a
patient with sepsis, there could also be pharmacokinetic considerations for that patient; if you have a patient
with a skin and soft tissue infection, there could also be HAI issues; if you have a patient with a urinary tract
infection this may also include the application of pharmaceutical stewardship in practice etc.
Q9 What should I do if I want to complete the OPAT element but there is not yet a service available within the
area where I work?
You should speak with your line manager or Director of Pharmacy (DoP) to make sure that it will be possible for
you to be released for at least one day to either work-shadow within an OPAT team or attend an OPAT clinic to
gain some experience of an OPAT service first hand. You will NOT however be required to identify a patient for
whom to develop a care plan during that time.
Q10 When should I produce a CPD record and when should I produce a Reflective Essay or Action Plan?
We have given you the option to provide evidence as GPhC CPD records so that you do not need to do any more
work than necessary to meet the GPhC requirements while completing the module. You should follow the GPhC
guidance regarding how many CPD records should start from reflection.
If you are completing the module as a full-time antimicrobial pharmacist over about 18 months then you would
be expected to produce between 13 and 15 CPD records within that time to meet GPhC requirements. This is
why we have suggested that you could provide your evidence for most of the elements as a CPD record. For
some more in-depth pieces of evidence you may however wish to use the Reflective Essay on e portfolio as an
alternative.
If you are working as an antimicrobial pharmacist part-time along with other pharmacy duties then you would
not expect all your GPhC CPD records to involve antimicrobials and stewardship. In this case you could, for
example produce 8 CPDs for the module and cover the other elements with Reflective Essays.
10 | P a g e
In some elements there is the option to document your evidence as an Action Plan if it is anticipated that a
slightly shorter report may be adequate.
We have aimed to make the choices for recording evidence as flexible as possible so you can pick and choose as
you prefer in most cases while giving you the option to minimise duplication of work to fulfil GPhC
requirements.
Q11 How long should each CPD or Reflective Essay be?
Try to keep each CPD or Reflective Essay as succinct as possible. These reports do not need to be long, so long as
they provide enough evidence to meet the performance indicators. We do not stipulate specific word counts
however, as a rough guide, most CPDs and Reflective Essays should be equivalent to not more than a couple of
sides of A4 if possible. For some reports such as those in 2.3, 2.7 and Elements 3, 16 and 17 where there is a lot
to cover, or if you need to include pharmaceutical care considerations within your CPD/Reflective Essay, then
the report may need to be longer to include all the necessary details. In such cases try not to exceed a maximum
of 2000 words.
Questions about the resources listed on the NES website for the VT3 Infection and
Antimicrobial Stewardship module
Q1 If resources are listed in the "Core resources" list do I need to read, watch or complete them all, even if I
have a good knowledge and understanding of the subject already?
No, if you feel that you are up to date on the subject already, e.g. you helped to develop the SIGN guideline in
question or use it on a regular basis then you are not obliged to read it again. You should however be able to
demonstrate an understanding of the subjects in the core resources in the evidence you produce as your
performance indicator.
If there is a requirement for evidence as a record of completing an MCQ for an eLearning resource then you can
complete the MCQ without working your way through the whole programme so long as you are confident that
you know the subject well.
Q2 Do I need to access all the Supplementary resources listed?
No, the supplementary resources are available in case you wish to investigate a subject in more depth either
while you are completing the Infection and Antimicrobial Stewardship Module or at some time in the future.
These supplementary resources have been identified by ASAP members as useful additional information which
you can access as you wish.
11 | P a g e
Q3 Is the Core and Supplementary Resource List on the NES website automatically updated?
No. The ASAP Education Sub-committee will review the Core resource list every 2 years on a rolling programme
however it will be your responsibility as a professional pharmacist to ensure that you are sourcing the most up
to date evidence e.g. if a new NICE guideline is published and the previous version is still listed on the resource
list, you will be expected to work with the latest version.
There is a column on the far right of the resource list where you can comment about any of the resources and
highlight any that have been superseded.
Q4 If a resource is on YouTube and I cannot access this from work due to NHS restrictions, what should I do?
Currently there are only a few resources which are accessed via YouTube and not all are core resources. If your
NHS site does not allow access to these either via the NHS computer or a personal electronic device then it
would be recommended that you should access then from your home PC or laptop. We apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.
Q5 If I am experiencing problems accessing resources, if I wish to give urgent feedback about resources or
have any feedback on how this module is working in practice, whom should I contact?
You can contact either the Chair of the ASAP Education Sub-committee or the Lead Pharmacist for Educational
Development at NES (pharmacy@nes.scot.nhs.uk ). This is a new module and we welcome any feedback which
can help to improve it for the future. Please do not hesitate to contact one of these colleagues.
Q6 Where should I store the Stage 3 Resources List while I am completing the VT3?
You can store this on your PC either at work or at home. When you have accessed a resource you can record the
date and if you have any general comments you can add this information to the right-hand column. Once you
are ready to submit all your evidence via e-Portfolio, you can upload the annotated resources list to your
personal library and any general comments you have about the individual resources can then be viewed by the
your Educational Supervisor who will feed the information if required to NES Pharmacy and the Antimicrobial
Stewardship Group.
Further Questions
Q1 If I am not yet practising as an Antimicrobial Pharmacist but would like to do so in the future, can I apply
to do the course?
Yes, if your DoP is willing to put you forward for the course with a view to developing your career as an
antimicrobial pharmacist in the future, then this would be possible. It may however be necessary to arrange
more work-shadowing to enable you to complete the course successfully. This should be discussed with your
DoP and the Lead Pharmacist for Educational Development at NES.
12 | P a g e
13 | P a g e
The Pharmacy
Vocational Training Scheme
Stage 3 (VT3)
Frequently Asked Questions for Trainees and
Tutors
The Pharmaceutical Care of Older People module
14 | P a g e