Between May 10 – 16, 2024, Dr. Ahmad El Ouweini, Clinical Lecturer, College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University and Critical Care Clinical Pharmacist, Thumbay University Hospital visited London, UK on a professional development journey. During the first 2 days, Dr. El Ouweini attended the annual UK Clinical Pharmacy Congress, the largest congress across Europe that tackles clinical pharmacy topics. During these 2 days, Dr. El Ouweini attended many enriching sessions for advancing pharmacy practice at GMU and TUH. Examples include: Tools for Optimizing Medicines to Deprescribing, Polypharmacy Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Clinic, Research Posters on New Pharmacy-led Initiatives across the UK, Community Pharmacy Independent Prescribing, Virtual Wards, and many others.
Following the congress, Dr. El Ouweini visited 3 top hospitals in London, Nuffield Health at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where he observed the role of ICU clinical pharmacist among the multidisciplinary healthcare team, and other important projects run by pharmacists such as: longitudinal competency-based training programs available for Critical Care pharmacists, Prescribing skills training that is offered to the undergraduate pharmacy and medical students across their years of study, in an interprofessional approach, pharmacists contribution to MedicineComplete – Critical Illness publication, and the core roles for adequately competent pharmacy technicians among the healthcare team that go beyond technical tasks to some clinical tasks as well, among many others.
After this enriching and eye-opening visit, Dr. El Ouweini will deliver a presentation to the GMU College of Pharmacy faculty on the key lessons learned during this visit and what can be transferred and implemented in our institution to advance education, practice, and research.
