The healthcare industry plays an important role within the community and is essential for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of patients. Community pharmacies are now either registered as a Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) or working towards becoming one through Health Champion Training as from April 2020 this forms an essential part of the new 5 year community pharmacy contractual framework. As part of this process, at least one team member is required to complete the Royal Society for Public Health Level 2 award in Understanding Health Improvement.
For community pharmacy teams, continuous education and training is essential to better understand their community’s health and well-being as well as existing health inequalities. VirtualOutcomes is a leading online training provider for health care professionals delivering high-quality online training and support for community pharmacies.
What Is Health Champion Training?
The Health Champion Training qualification is recognised by the Department of Health and forms part of the requirements to become a Level 1 Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP). The training focuses on the four modules in the RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health):
- Understanding inequalities in health development and the current policies for addressing them
- How effective communication can support health messages
- Learn how to promote improvements in health and well-being in individuals
- Understanding the impact of change improving an individual’s health and well-being
Health Champion Training provides the necessary tools to help start conversations with people inside the pharmacy about any health issues. Please visit the dedicated Health Champion Training page for more information on course content, assessment and registration. Each course costs £59.50 + VAT if your pharmacy is live with VirtualOutcomes, or £64.50 + VAT if they are not. This also includes the cost of the exam. Our current passmark is over 95%.
New Pharmacy Contract
The announcement on the 22nd July 2019 of the new pharmacy contract means that from the 1st April 2020 all pharmacies must be an accredited Level 1 Healthy Living Pharmacy. This means that to meet the criteria, all pharmacies must have a full time Health Champion. Our online training course is spread over four easy to follow modules and provides a simple, cost effective way of training a colleague without them having to leave the pharmacy. It can be completed during work hours or if preferred at home.
For more information please see our dedicated health champion page.
Healthy Living Pharmacies, Regulations And Online Courses
Healthy Living Pharmacies (HLP) aim at delivering a broad range of consistently high-quality services through community pharmacies. The HLP framework promotes workforce development, appropriate premises and improved engagement. This involves a skilled team that can proactively promote behaviour change with the primary goal of improving health and well-being. It also includes effective communication with the local community, health care professionals, social care and public health authorities.
The pharmacy regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Society, also requires pharmacy teams to undertake regular professional development which is reviewed as part of any pharmacy inspection. All courses come with a certificate that you can download upon successful completion of 5-8 CPD questions. Here’s a closer look at the standards for pharmacy professionals.
The courses are short, easily accessible and cover topics such as exercising, alcohol intake, smoking, mental health, GDPR and Flu among others. Team members have the opportunity to receive a certificate as evidence of training for the GPhC and/or Healthy living Pharmacy file. Each course links to additional resources such as posters, pamphlets and other materials the team can easily access, download and print.
It also includes examples of how to create eye-catching health promotion displays inside the pharmacy. This provides team members with ideas on how to create displays, how to engage the public in potentially difficult conversations and how to signpost people if they need additional support. Everything aims at adding further impetus to the team’s campaigns to educate and help improve public health perception and awareness.
What Online Courses Are Available And Who Can Access Them?
Below we’ve included a brief overview of the 2019 courses you can expect from VirtualOutcomes:
- Cervical cancer screening awareness
- Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD)
- Fall prevention in the elderly
- Oral health – National Smile Month (18 May – 18 June)
- Stroke Action
- Safeguarding children and adults
- Anti-microbial resistance (correct usage of antibiotics)
- Pain management
- Alcohol intake
- Dementia