|
This undertaking has taken a great deal of time and effort but
has paid dividends for my business.
John Ware, a prominent Victorian Pharmacist, has recently been
advocating for Pharmacists to become more aware of community and
government awards and to be nominating worthy Pharmacists for
these awards.
For too long Pharmacists have sat back and relied on the fact
that the Gallop polls find us to be in the top two of 'respected'
health professionals but how do our fellow health professionals
rate our professionalism and credibility-have we proved our worth
and stood up for ourselves enough??
As
a female I found some of the tasks I undertook to be a little
on the risqué side of life and my husband has made many
comments on the fact that I was going to breakfast meetings, night
meetings, weekend seminars.
I am sure he felt I had found a 'new man'.
The truth was that you had to be 'seen' at regional health events,
community health events, hospital meetings, support group meetings,
kindergarten and preschool meetings and anything else that had
a health background.
I talked and presented and cajoled lots of people into believing
in the value that a professional Pharmacist could bring to their
area of health.
Along
this path of 'Pharmacist and health promotion and education' I
quickly discovered that a lot of the questions being fired at
me related to complementary health care so we quickly added the
Naturopath into these meetings and events where possible.
In fact, lately with the acute shortage of Pharmacists, the Naturopath
has continued to go to many of these meetings and events without
me, and while she answers questions about complementary health
care she also espouses the benefits of dealing with a Pharmacy
business that can provide both sides of the health equation-western
medicine and complementary health care.
The
growth in our business from this 'frontline' approach has been
significant.
Some of our success stories have been a 'Smoking cessation' evening
organised in conjunction with the QUIT team from Community Health
and the Division of Gps.
At the evening there was a GP to talk on reducing risk factors,
I presented on Patches and gums, the Naturopath discussed 'detoxifying
and antioxidants', then we had other alternative practitioners
present on Reiki, hypnosis, Bowen therapy and relaxation techniques.
We had an outstanding roll up and we could not get them out the
door afterwards.
We have also formed an alliance with several of the childcare
centres and we offer a presentation that includes a Pharmacist,
Naturopath, Dental therapist and usually another practitioner
like a chiropractor/nutritionist/osteopath.
The centres are still booking these evenings after two years of
giving the lectures.
We
have also been heavily involved in a Men's Health expo and a Older
age persons expo which took a lot of work and preparation but
the benefits in terms of forming good alliances with other health
professionals and being seen by the consumer to be interested
in their health problems have been phenomenal.
The
other area that I have found very rewarding in forming good alliances
with the GPs was that one of the Pharmacists started attending
the junior Doctor education sessions at the hospital.
Initially we asked to attend as we had a preregistration student
and she was having difficulty in achieving her CPE contact hours
in a regional centre.
The GP giving the presentations was initially reluctant but agreed
and we have since discovered that many 'issues' that were encountered
by these young Doctors in their practice placement term could
be addressed and explained by the Pharmacist.
It has also been helpful for the GPs to gain insight into what
causes problems for the Pharmacists in their everyday practice.
I have given several presentations on the PBS to both the young
and overseas trained Doctors as they have very little prior training
on this complex issue.
These young GPs then have a face to put the name to and when they
know you have a particular interest in a subject like Complementary
health care they will contact you with their 'curly questions'.
One of the young registrars rang recently with a patient in the
Cardiac care unit that had been taking an absolute cocktail of
western medicine and natural therapies and had developed a life
threatening arrhythmia.
With
the advent of MAS (medication assistance scheme) and HMR (Home
Medicines Review) these strategic alliances that I already have
formed have been invaluable in making these services easier to
deliver.
Most of the GPs are aware of the professional ability of the Pharmacists
on our team and they are also aware that the Naturopaths we employ
are authentic and professional in their practice.
I also am able to make contact with many other agencies and be
able to gather the information I need for the patient without
too much fuss and bother eg Community Dementia services, St Vincent
de Paul Community services, dieticians, aged care assessment team
etc.
These people know my staff or me and they respect the value of
what we are trying to achieve for these patients.
Having a knowledge of what health services are available and who
to go to for help makes a MAS or HMR much easier to perform and
results in the consumer gaining confidence in your ability.
A good MAS /HMR interview can gain you a customer for life.
One elderly gentleman and his wife that we saw last week were
quite disappointed that the friendly Pharmacist could not come
and visit again for another year.
His comment was: "The nice Chinese girl was much nicer than
the gruff old Pharmacist (me) who rouses on me for taking too
much Mylanta".
At least the 'nice Chinese girl' has been able to persuade him
to take his Ranitidine and cut back on his Mylanta!!
My
advice to any young Pharmacist wanting to make their business
grow and gain professional credence is to make as many 'strategic
alliances' as you can-a smile, a handshake and a quiet conversation
today can mean an easier telephone discussion with a health professional
tomorrow.
Back
to Front Page
|
.jpg)
