Example reflective account for revalidation

At the time of publication, the 2026 standards that pharmacy technicians should base a reflective account on had not been published. The standards for 2025 are:

• Standard 1: Pharmacy professionals must provide person-centred care
• Standard 2: Pharmacy professionals must work in partnership with others
• Standard 5: Pharmacy professionals must use their professional judgement

Explain briefly your area of work (the setting of your practice and your main roles), giving context to your reflection.

Describe briefly who the typical users of your service(s) are.

In the context of Pharmacy First and antimicrobial prescribing updates, who typically accesses your consultation services (e.g. age groups, common presenting conditions, health inequalities groups, frequent versus first-time users)?

For emergency contraception and the expanding NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service, what are the characteristics and needs of the patients who most commonly request support? Are there any recurring safeguarding or accessibility patterns?

How do you demonstrate person-centred care in working with patients when delivering Pharmacy First consultations?

For example, how do you tailor safety-netting advice or self care support to individual levels of health literacy, cultural background or anxiety? Also in contraception services, particularly when discussing sensitive topics such as safeguarding, Fraser competence, or repeat requests for EHC?

How do you demonstrate this within smoking cessation or long-term condition optimisation (e.g. heart failure), ensuring that treatment goals reflect the patient’s own motivation, readiness for change and lifestyle context?

How do you demonstrate professional judgement to provide treatment under a PGD versus when to safety net or refer to another healthcare provider?

When delivering emergency contraception or smoking cessation advice, how do you balance respecting patient autonomy with safeguarding and clinical responsibility? How do you interpret and apply the updated antimicrobial prescribing summaries when symptoms fall into ‘grey areas’ outside the neat age bands or criteria?

How do you demonstrate working in partnership with others?

In the context of the Pharmacy First refresh, particularly when coordinating with GPs, ICBs, or Local Pharmaceutical Committees to ensure smooth referral and escalation? Or in the roll-out of the contraception service, especially when liaising with sexual health clinics, safeguarding teams or wider primary care colleagues?

How do you demonstrate working in partnership with others when using updated NICE guidelines?

How do you communicate changes to local prescribers or align with multidisciplinary teams? In using triage tools, PGDs and SOPs within your own pharmacy team – how do you ensure technicians, counter staff and pharmacists are consistently aligned and competent?