Dear Member,
Our NMS clinical series is now completed. We have provided you clinical summaries for all conditions in the NMS - please ask us if you want these sent to you. But, clinical knowledge is just one thing. You have to use your knowledge
and apply it to your consultations with patients to improve their health. This email will even support you in building your clinical skills even further.
We're pleased to share a new resource that we've developed to support your clinical practice: our Clinical Consultation Skills guide.
As our roles continue to evolve and expand, the ability to conduct thorough, structured consultations is becoming increasingly important. Whether you are delivering Pharmacy First, NMS, CPCS, or simply helping a patient at the counter with a clinical query, the quality of your consultation directly shapes the quality of the care you provide.
With that in mind,
we've put together two documents for you (see attached):
1. Clinical Consultation Skills, A Practical Guide. This is the detailed document. It walks through every stage of a clinical consultation, from preparation and history-taking through to clinical reasoning, safety-netting, and
documentation. It covers frameworks like SOCRATES and ICE in depth, explains how to take a thorough drug history and social history, and sets out how to identify red flags and build a differential diagnosis. It is designed to be worked through at your own pace, one section at a time.
2. Clinical Consultation Framework, Quick Reference. This is a single-page landscape summary of the entire consultation framework. It is designed to be printed, laminated, and kept in your consultation room as a quick-reference tool while you build confidence with the full framework.
These resources are not just about improving your current consultations. They are about
building the clinical foundation for wherever your career takes you next. The same skills covered in this guide are the skills you will need for independent prescribing, advanced clinical services, and any future clinical role. Starting to embed these habits now puts you in a strong position for the future.
We'd encourage you to:
1- Read through the detailed guide when you have some protected time.
2- Print out the quick reference and keep it to hand during consultations.
3- Reflect on your
consultations using the framework and identify areas you'd like to develop further.
As always, if you have any questions or feedback on these resources, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Regards,
PharmaPlus
