Pharmacy First for Pharmacy Technicians

Delivered across the online eLearning and three classroom days, you will develop the knowledge and practical skills to:

• Consultation and communication – carry out structured, person-centred consultations, using shared decision-making and clear safety-netting.
• Clinical assessment skills – perform and interpret blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, peak flow, blood glucose, cholesterol and urinalysis.
• Physical examination – focused ENT, respiratory, cardiovascular and skin assessment mapped to the Pharmacy First pathways.
• The Pharmacy First pathways – assess and manage sore throat, acute otitis media, sinusitis, impetigo, infected insect bites, shingles and uncomplicated UTI in women.
• Clinical reasoning – prioritise, apply critical thinking, recognise the limits of competence and escalate risk appropriately.
• Long-term conditions – support the review and monitoring of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes and mental health.
• Interpreting data and observations – make sense of observations, test results and trends, and recognise the deteriorating patient.
• Public health and prevention – deliver prevention and health-improvement interventions and brief lifestyle advice.
• Governance and documentation – work within legal, ethical and professional frameworks including PGDs, and keep accurate, compliant records.
• Integrated and multiprofessional care – work across teams and settings and support safe transfer of care.

The thirteen online modules

Each ends with a knowledge check, and the full set must be completed to unlock your place on the face-to-face days.

1. The Evolving Pharmacy Technician Role and Scope of Practice
2. Legal, Ethical and Governance Frameworks for Clinical Practice — GPhC standards, medicines legislation, PGDs and delegated responsibilities, consent, confidentiality, safeguarding, incident reporting.
3. Consultation and Communication Skills for Person-Centred Care — structured consultation using Calgary–Cambridge, shared decision-making, health literacy and culture.
4. Applied Clinical Knowledge: Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Treatment Pathways
5. Clinical Reasoning, Decision-Making and Safety-Netting — prioritising, recognising the limits of competence, identifying and escalating clinical risk.
6. Common Acute Presentations and the Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways — the national pathways, their assessment criteria, red flags and referral thresholds.
7. Supporting the Management of Long-Term Conditions — cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes and mental health.
8. Clinical Observations and Vital Signs: Principles and Interpretation — normal versus abnormal ranges, the significance of trends, and when a finding means escalation.
9. Interpreting Clinical Data and Laboratory Results — therapeutic drug monitoring, U&Es, LFTs, FBC, HbA1c, drug levels and renal function.
10. Public Health, Prevention and Health Improvement — smoking cessation, vaccination, NHS Health Checks, antimicrobial stewardship and health inequalities.
11. NHS Commissioned Clinical Services and Pathways — Pharmacy First, blood pressure check service, oral contraception service and NHS Health Checks.
12. Clinical Documentation, Record Keeping and Information Governance
13. Multiprofessional Working, Integrated Care and Quality Improvement — including audit, service evaluation and using data to support improvement.

A MediPro Level 4 CPD certificate in Pharmacy First and Clinical Skills for Pharmacy Technicians, confirming the CPD hours completed and the clinical competencies assessed.

How you are assessed

• Knowledge checks on each of the thirteen online modules — all must be passed to unlock your classroom place
• Observed consultation on Day 1, with feedback
• Practical observation of clinical assessment skills across all three days
• Simulated Pharmacy First consultations on Day 2
• Summative OSCE stations on Day 3, spanning the acute pathways, vital signs and long-term condition reviews, assessed against defined criteria with individual feedback

Evidence for your workplace

Day 3 finishes with action planning and portfolio evidence you take back with you. Most employers want to see training evidence before signing a technician off to work to a service specification, and this is designed to be that evidence.

It is CPD rather than a regulated qualification. What you are permitted to do afterwards is set by your employer’s governance and the relevant service specification or PGD, not by the certificate.

This course is designed for registered pharmacy technicians. To enrol, learners should:

• be currently registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) as a pharmacy technician; and
• be employed or working in a clinical healthcare setting that delivers NHS services, with employer support to apply the skills in practice.

All learners complete the online eLearning modules before attending the three face-to-face days. The full set has to be finished — it is what unlocks your place.

If you are a technician without employer backing yet, speak to us before booking. It is usually worth having that conversation with your employer first, because the skills need somewhere to be used.

£500 including VAT — or £425 each when you book four or more. Covers the thirteen online modules, all three classroom days, assessment and your certificate.

Multiple booking discount

Organisations booking four or more learners receive 15% off the total, including any optional services added at checkout. For a group putting a team of technicians through together, that is £300 back on four places.

Returning learners

Trained with us before? When you come back to requalify, take 10% off your refresher.

Course fee money-back guarantee

Attend the course, complete the learning and follow your tutor’s guidance. If you still do not pass, we refund your course fee. On eligible courses.

Secure your place with a 20% deposit

Pay 20% at checkout to secure your place on the date you want. The balance is due before your course starts.

Pay in full with Klarna

Choose Klarna at checkout and spread the cost on Klarna’s terms. Subject to Klarna’s eligibility checks.

Employer invoicing

Most learners on this course are funded by their employer. We invoice directly rather than asking you to pay and reclaim. Get in touch and we will set it up.

In-house delivery

For groups of ten or more we deliver the classroom days at your premises. Your technicians complete the eLearning beforehand as usual. Ask for a quote.

Staying overnight

Travelling to us from outside Teesside? We have agreed learner rates with the Sporting Lodge Inn at Stainton, a 5 to 10 minute drive from our Stockton-on-Tees centre, with easy access from the A19 and A174.

• £75 per night — bed and breakfast
• £95 per night — dinner, bed and breakfast, including a two-course evening meal and a drink

Both rates include free on-site parking and free use of the hotel gym and 25-metre pool. There is a pub and restaurant on site.

These rates are only available through us, not directly with the hotel. Add the nights you need to your checkout when you book your course, and we will arrange it and confirm the details with you.

Three classroom days means three nights. At £75 that is £225, with breakfast and parking included.

Rooms are subject to availability, so book as early as you can. Plans change — cancel your room up to 24 hours before arrival and we will refund it.

Download our Teesside accommodation and local area guide for learners (PDF)

Our centre is Faraday House, Sopwith Close, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 3TT, with free on-site parking and direct access from the A66 and A19.

By rail

Darlington sits on the East Coast Mainline, under three hours from London King’s Cross, with direct services from Edinburgh, Newcastle, York and Leeds. Eaglescliffe is the nearest station to the centre, with parking, cycle storage and ticket facilities.

By air

Teesside International Airport is around twenty minutes away and Newcastle Airport about an hour, with direct flights from Aberdeen, Belfast and Dublin.

What it costs to attend

Teesside is straightforward to reach from anywhere in the UK, and cheaper to stay in than most training locations. Three nights and three days away from the pharmacy, with the theory already done at home, is the whole reason the course is built this way.