Critical care pharmacists are highly-specialised professionals who function as part of a multidisciplinary critical care team by optimising pharmacotherapy for intensive care patients. Critical care pharmacists will use their expert knowledge to determine the right drug therapy for individuals and optimise the use of medications within intensive care cases.

Regardless of their discipline, all pharmacists must complete their MPharm Pharmacy undergraduate degree, followed by one year of further training within the workplace. After this year of additional training, pharmacists will undergo their examination and subsequent registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC), after which newly qualified pharmacists can apply for jobs within their chosen sector.

Pharmacists wanting to specialise in critical care still need to undergo rotational job roles and complete the foundational training across the common specialities and departments within pharmacy, such as medicines, paediatrics and aseptic manufacturing. Following this, they are able to seek opportunities to work in the critical care setting.

Critical care pharmacists are a vital part of ICU healthcare teams, particularly when managing patients with complex medical conditions. Within a critical care setting, pharmacists can be expected to:

• Develop and manage medication therapy plans for each patient
• Ensure medications are being prescribed and used safely and effectively
• Monitor patient responses to medicines for drug interactions or adverse effects, and adjust the therapy plan accordingly
• Conduct medical evaluations to ascertain and reconcile medicine history
• Provide information about medicines and prescribe drugs as part of the therapy plan
• Manage prescription rates to reduce errors and optimise the use of medicines in patient treatment
• Work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary ICU team
• Educate and guide patients and their families on medication administration or management, within the hospital and post-discharge

As critical care pharmacists work in intensive care units, most of these roles are stationed within a hospital or similar clinical setting. Some pharmacists choose to devote some time to education within the sector and will work as teaching fellows or lecturers in universities, and some may get involved in research activities.

Typically, a critical care pharmacist’s initial role managing patients within an intensive care setting will require supervision from more senior pharmacists when caring for complex patients. As they progress towards more advanced practice, they are able to undergo the advanced pharmacist critical care credentialing assessment, using the advanced pharmacist critical care curriculum as a framework.

From here, critical care pharmacists are able to apply for more advanced roles when suitably experienced and can also complete further training in their chosen field to enhance their knowledge and career prospects, such as completing a Critical Care MSc. 

In larger clinical environments, many critical care pharmacists progress to management roles within intensive care. Generally, the more senior the critical care role, the more professional support will be required from the pharmacists to junior staff. This includes developing and implementing guidelines, helping to educate junior pharmacists, managing the expenditure of medicines, and conducting ongoing research.

In order to become a consultant critical care pharmacist, senior pharmacists are required to complete the consultant pharmacist credentialing process. This is to demonstrate the pharmacist’s ability to:

• Work across organisational boundaries
• Communicate effectively across multi-disciplinary teams
• Influence large-scale policies and guidelines (such as national guidelines)
• Drive advancements in education
• Conduct relevant research and analysis

Once the consultant pharmacist credentialing process has been completed, critical care consultants are officially recognised as an expert in intensive care pharmaceuticals beyond their clinical setting. Many of these critical care pharmacists have chosen to become part of UKCPA’s critical care community and committee, pioneering the future of critical care pharmacy within the UK and beyond.