Working in Prescribing and Shared Care
Posts and Roles
There are eight different kinds of post within prescribing, each with different levels of responsibility. These are
- Community Drug Worker
- Shared Care Worker
- Scriptbase/Pharmacy Liaison Worker
- Senior Practitioner
- Prescribing Co-ordinator
- Deputy Manager
- Service Manager
- Operations and Development Manager
What do Prescribing Workers do?
Community Drug Workers are qualified practitioners and come from backgrounds such as nursing, social services etc.
A large part of the role involves face-to-face contact with service users, setting agreed goals and assessing health within the framework of a care plan as well as liaising with other professionals such as GPs, social services, criminal justice, maternity services and other workers with whom your clients may be in contact.
Caseloads vary depending on service user needs, for example an individual new to service may be seen once or twice a week whereas relatively stable service users are seen once each calendar month. Senior practitioners within the team tend to take responsiblity for the more complex cases, such as pregnant service users, young people and those presenting with a dual diagnosis.
Shared care workers work with service users who are relatively stable and are seen and prescribed by their GP in primary care settings and provide additional advice and support to the GP and other practice staff.
Scriptbase Workers and Pharmacy Liaison Workers maintain our prescribing database and work closely with pharmacists to manage the security of prescriptions.
Extending the role
Training
Prescribing workers contribute to KCA's Training Services by providing specialist training sessions to GPs and Pharmacists on a quarterly basis in each area in which we work, and to their support staff. This training ranges from RCGP Parts 1 and 2 level for GPs to ad hoc professional development seminars for pharmacy and surgery support staff.
We also provide specialist training to members of Primary Care Trusts.