News - Page 12

IIOP Mentoring Programme - 2021 EMCC Mentoring Award

Written by Sarah Chambers, ePortfolio Review Project Lead, Irish Institute of Pharmacy: The Irish Institute of Pharmacy (IIOP) are delighted to announce that the mentoring programme has won the 2021 EMCC Mentoring Award!

Mentoring Ambassadors for the Irish Institute of Pharmacy Mentoring Programme

Dr Riza Kadilar, EMCC Global President, said of the award winners says, “EMCC exists to develop, promote, and set the expectation of best practice in mentoring (as well as coaching and supervision) globally for the benefit of society. I am proud to see that the Irish Institute of Pharmacy as the winners of the 2021 EMCC mentoring award. Their exemplary work, especially during the pandemic, has been a source of inspiration for our community.”

The IIOP are delighted to receive the award on behalf of the pharmacists who participated in our Mentoring Skills Training or as mentors or mentees on our Mentoring Programmes. Congratulations to each of you for developing your skills and supporting the development of Mentoring in the profession!

Congratulations to our mentoring ambassadors Louisa Power, Rachel Dungan, David Walsh, Michelle Kirrane Scott, Nadira Callachand, Ríona Tumelty, Fiona Leonard, Cian O’Caheny, Moyosola Tijani and Emer Lane who lead our mentoring community and advocate for mentoring across the profession.

Congratulations to our Steering Group members Catriona Campbell, Emily Kelly, John Bourke and AnneMarie de Frein who steer the programme at a strategic level ensuring the programme is sustainable and enjoyable and to programme lead Sarah Chambers and Dr. Rachael Clarke for the leadership of the programme.

How can pharmacists who are interested in mentoring get involved?

1. Sign up for some Mentoring Skills Training

Since 2019, over 100 Pharmacists have completed Mentoring Skills Training to date with additional training sessions now on offer. The response to the training, run in conjunction with Kingstown College, has been hugely positive with pharmacists appreciating the practicality of the content and how applicable it is to their day-to-day work. The aim of the training programme is to introduce pharmacists to recognise the principles of mentorship and to assist you to engage with examples and scenarios that will help you to implement these principles into your own practice. It would be anticipated that those participating in this programme would be open to initiating mentoring relationships within the profession as part of the IIOP Mentoring Programme. Additional dates have been announced for April and May 2022 and you can book your place on the IIOP website now.

2. Join the CONNECT Mentoring Community

Our new CONNECT Mentoring community will give pharmacists who are interested in mentoring a place to come together as a community to connect, learn and share. As a member of the mentoring community you will receive regular updates on the programme and be invited to CONNECT events where you can;

• CONNECT with like-minded pharmacists across the profession on a quarterly basis at events, exclusive to you.

• LEARN about putting mentoring skills into practice and how the mentoring programme is developing. Think peer-led, bite size, practical learning as well as regular updates on the programme.

• SHARE your ideas and your feedback so that together, we continue to build on the great work already happening.

The IIOP are committed to supporting this CONNECT community to shape the future of mentoring for pharmacy. So far, we have invited pharmacists to join this CONNECT community if they have either completed the IIOP Mentorship Skills Training and/or participated in our recent Mentoring Programme. If you would like to get involved get in touch with the IIOP Mentoring Programme Team at mentoring@iiop.ie.

3. Join the next Mentoring Programme

The next mentoring programme will launch in May 2022. Applications will be open to pharmacists from all sectors and all career stages.

It is time to cultivate a culture of mentorship within the Irish pharmacy profession. You can find out more on the Mentoring Homepage on the IIOP website.

National Service Plan

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has approved the 2022 National Service Plan for the HSE which aims to reduce waiting lists, build hospital and other service capacity and continue to support the progress of important Sláintecare reforms.

The National Service Plan outlines the health and social care services that will be provided to the people of Ireland in 2022 within the allocated budget of ¤20.7bn.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said, “This is the largest financial allocation ever received by the health and social care services and it comes at a time when we are continuing to deliver reforms and improvements based on the recommendations of the Sláintecare report towards the delivery of Universal Healthcare.”

The NSP envisages that bed numbers within acute settings will significantly increase, including 1,146 additional acute beds by the end of 2022 (849 of which will be open by end-2021) and 19 additional critical care beds, to bring the total number of adult critical care beds to 340 by the end of 2022.

The funding for the Enhanced Community Care Programme will see completion of the rollout of 96 Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs) and 30 community specialist teams for older persons, as well as the establishment of 30 community specialist teams for people living with chronic disease, reducing our dependence on a hospital-centric model of care.

Crisis resolution services in mental health will continue to develop, with the addition of three teams and cafes in place by year-end, providing 900 additional interventions as alternatives to acute inpatient care and ED presentations. The CAMHS telehealth hubs initiative will also progress, developing two further hubs in 2022 with an anticipated 200 new service users seen. 120,000 additional hours of personal assistant supports, and 30,000 additional hours of home support will be delivered in disability services.