In an examination of serious clinical errors, it is clear that healthcare staff working beyond their level of competency is a very significant causative factor. Working to your level of competency is at the very core of practising safely and that is one of the founding principles of the PDA’s approach to indemnity for Practice based Pharmacists.
This focus builds an awareness amongst pharmacists about the need to continue to work within the boundaries of their competence and helps provide a defence mechanism against being pushed by others to undertake tasks that they are not yet competent to undertake. In such a way, competency considerations help to keep patients safe and reduce harm caused by errors.
Ultimately, a focus upon competency can lead to a skills and salary escalator as competency and experience can be linked to seniority in practice and a corresponding remuneration structure.
We provide a ‘Boundaries of Clinical Practice Statement’ (BCPS) that can help you with this.
We invite you to select your level of competency and urge you to keep your personal levels of competency under review as you will find that they will change with experience.