WITH the upcoming Pharmacy Board elections, I felt it was timely to highlight the remit and role of the National Boards. From my engagement with members over the past few months, it seemed apparent that most did not have a clear insight to the objectives and role of the National Pharmacy Boards.
The National Pharmacy Board provides professional leadership and advocacy support for pharmacy practice in the UK across all sectors. The Boards are fully focused on representing and supporting members both in their day-to-day work of pharmacy practice and contributing to the role of pharmacy in the future. One of the key roles of the Board is to be the voice of its members in order to influence change on a national and government level.
Currently pharmacy has many professional groups and national organisations. A recent infographic in the Pharmaceutical Journal illustrated who these are and how these feed into one another; but also, shows how complex pharmacy is. There is not one united voice.
What do we need?
We need the RPS to be the single voice of the profession. One of the strategic objectives of the EPB should be to ensure that the RPS is the single go-to organisation for its members, the public and other health and care professionals.
There are a number of affiliated partners that we need to work much more closely with to set the vision for pharmacy.
This is by no means an easy task, but by the National Boards working together and engaging with these organisations, we can work towards unity amongst all pharmacy professionals. Once we have achieved unity and collaboration as a profession, our voice can be louder and we can ensure it is listened to at all levels.
To allow change it must be a priority to unite as a profession and have a unified voice.
It is paramount that we take the board closer to the membership. By collaborating with organisations, by proxy we are talking to our members. It is therefore necessary that the National Boards need to be more visible and transparent with their members to achieve this.
My vision as an elected member would be to address the above issues and work with the RPS and expert groups to be the single voice of the profession.
Nadia Bukhari is an #RPSElection17 English Board candidate