Genomics in your Practice: a pharmacy survey

The purpose of the Genomics in your Practice survey is to:

• assess if and how pharmacy staff currently use genomics;
• measure self-perceived confidence in their genomics knowledge and skills;
• evaluate engagement with genomics education and training;
• understand their intention to use genomics in future practice; and
• identify future education and training requirements.

The NHS Genomic Medicine Service Alliances and Health Education England’s Genomics Education Programme are carrying this work out as part of fulfilling one of the commitments set out in Genome UK.

We are asking all pharmacy staff, irrespective of level of experience, job role or area of work, to complete the survey. This will enable us to gain a full picture of the pharmacy workforce in relation to genomics.

The online survey will ask you a number of questions about you and your role, focusing on your use, or not, of genomic testing. It will also ask you about your confidence in accessing genomic tests and using genomic information to inform your practice. The survey will conclude with questions about how you access education and training information and what topic areas in genomics you would like to learn more about. The survey will not ask for any information that could personally identify you. The survey will be available online until Friday 15^th April. It should take around 15-20 minutes to complete.

Individually, participating in the survey can help with your CPD planning. The survey invites you to reflect on how you encounter genomics in your practice and consider your learning and development needs. Following completion of the survey, we also provide respondents with a ‘genomics learning journey’ – a flexible way to chart your own course in building your knowledge of genomics medicine. Collectively, the survey results will inform future education and training plans, helping to ensure that educational opportunities in genomics are better aligned to the pharmacy community’s needs.

If you encounter any difficulties in accessing or completing the survey, please email the project team.

The information you provide will be kept confidential. The only people to see your all your responses will be the GEP team. No personal identifiable data are collected, but any information that could identify you as an individual will not be shared outside of the GEP (see below). Anonymised data may be shared with Genomics Medicine Service Alliance Pharmacy Leads and local Education and Training Leads. The data will be kept securely in line with Health Education England’s privacy policy. Any reports written using the data may include some of your comments as quotes; however, you will remain anonymous.

By completing the survey, you give your consent for your responses to be collected, stored and analysed, and to be included in reports and other publications. Your information will be kept confidential and data will be presented so that individual respondents cannot be identified. Where necessary, data will be combined so that it not possible to identify individuals in any reports, presentations or summaries.

You can withdraw from the survey at any time before selecting ‘Finish survey’ – just close the browser window. The survey is anonymous so it will not be possible to withdraw your data after you select ‘Finish survey’.

This project has been assessed by the NHS Health Research Authority as not requiring their approval to be carried out. It has been approved by NHS HEE Information Governance.

We will be publishing a national report on the survey findings in 2022.

We have already surveyed the medical workforce. The intention is to develop future iterations of the Genomics in your Practice workforce survey for other healthcare professional groups, such as nursing and midwifery.