Trainee pharmacists: e-portfolio and important acronyms

It's time to let go. It's time to move on. The latest cohort of trainee pharmacists has started. Notice that I didn't say pre-regs. Pre-regs are now called trainee pharmacists, pre-reg tutors are called designated supervisors, and the pre-reg year is called the foundation training year. This change happened in July 2021 and I'm confident that we can now all use the correct terminology. After all, we begrudgingly moved on from Opal Fruits and Marathon…

All trainee pharmacists must also enter the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) register as independent prescribers as well as pharmacists. This means that they must have access to a designated prescribing practitioner (DPP) during their foundation training year. This may or may not make it harder for qualified pharmacists to find their own DPP.

Portfolio careers

As we are in August, trainee pharmacists and designated supervisors should by now have logged onto the dreaded e-portfolio. The hardest part is logging in. The second hardest part is remembering how you logged in the first time…

The use of the e-portfolio became mandatory in 2025/2026 and this was a culture shock for many of us in community pharmacy. The e-portfolio introduced many new acronyms (pharmacy always likes new acronyms) and abbreviations including SLEs, LNA, MSF, PSQ, RA and CCL. Let's discuss them all.

Acronyms explained

• SLEs are supervised learning events and there are four of these. Mini-CEX, DOPS and MRCF all require direct supervision of trainee pharmacists.

  SLEs are a way of giving structured feedback to trainee pharmacists. We have been giving feedback for years, but it has mainly been verbal. Trainee pharmacists still need to show that they have met all the GPhC learning outcomes – and SLEs provide multiple opportunities to do this.

  Each SLE involves a trainee pharmacist providing a summary of an encounter, agreeing SMART actions and writing a reflection. The supervisor fills out the “what went well” and “suggestions for development” sections. There are also tick boxes to fill in with options to choose from: below expectations; meets expectations; exceeds expectations; or not applicable.

• DOPS is direct observation of practical skills. This is a tool to assess trainee pharmacists' ability to adhere to a defined protocol. Undertaking a hypertension case-finding consultation and entering controlled drugs in the CD register are examples of activities that can be assessed by DOPS.
• Mini-CEX is a mini-clinical evaluation exercise. This is used to assess a trainee pharmacist's ability to identify and solve medication and patient problems. Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations and contraception consultations are examples of activities that can be assessed by mini-CEXs.
• MRCF is a medicines-related consultation framework. This is used to develop a trainee pharmacist's consultation skills and can be used for any patient consultation.
• CBD is case-based discussion. This is used to assess a trainee pharmacist's knowledge and clinical decision-making. Examples of activities that can be assessed by a CBD include any professional decision-making scenarios including unsigned prescriptions, palliative care prescriptions with legal issues, and emergency supplies.
• LA is a learning agreement. This must be completed between the designated supervisor and trainee pharmacist, and is a series of commitments made by both.
• LNA refers to a learning needs analysis. This is initiated by the trainee pharmacist and allows them and their designated supervisor to review their perceived level of learning and competence so far, and create a plan for the next 13 weeks.
• MSF is multi-source feedback, also known as 360-degree feedback, and is received from others who have worked with the trainee pharmacist. This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacy technicians, dispensers and counter assistants. A trainee also has to reflect on their own performance to see if it aligns with that of their colleagues.
• PSQ is a patient satisfaction questionnaire. Patients can give feedback on a trainee pharmacist's consultation skills. This includes how they demonstrate empathy and build relationships, shared decision-making and whether they take a person-centred approach. A community pharmacy is an ideal place for this to occur.
• RA is a reflective account. This is self-explanatory and similar to a pharmacist's reflection for their revalidation, and allows trainee pharmacists to consider how the patient care that they provide has changed because of their learning.
• CCL is a contribution to care log. This can be used to record a range of activities such as interventions that result in a change to a prescription, or providing information to a patient or prescriber that results in improvements to the care of that patient.

Assessment activities

There are 29 NHSE assessment activities. These are divided into the following categories and sub-categories:

• Personal development activities – learning agreement, learning needs analysis and personal development plan, feedback
• Supplying medicines activities – technical and legal prescription issues and preparing medicinal products
• Education and research activities – teaching and mentoring, and research, audit and quality improvement
• Mandatory and specific development activities – first aid/adult basic life support, safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, health and safety, digital healthcare systems used in employing organisation (e.g. PharmOutcomes), and development and application of advanced therapies
• Observed clinical activities – clinical, patient-facing prescribing. Trainee pharmacists on full learning outcomes complete prescribing, whereas those on interim learning outcomes do not
• Clinical and patient-facing activities – these include medicines reconciliation, optimisation and safety, patient consultations, public health interventions, and responding to patients' medicines queries.

Each trainee pharmacist needs a nominated prescribing area, which is agreed by their designated supervisor and DPP. Prescribing activities include history taking, physical and clinical examination skills, consultations and prescription writing, and the necessary 90-hour logging. It is important to know that community pharmacy activities count towards history taking, and physical and clinical examination skills.

Pharmacy First, contraception and weight management services count towards history taking, while the hypertension case-finding service, using an otoscope, ascertaining FeverPain scores and calculating BMI measurements contribute towards physical and clinical examination skills. This means that almost 40% of prescribing activities can be met in every single community pharmacy.