Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

For those of you who missed the seventh Annual Pharmacy Australia Congress in October 2001 you missed a great conference. The quality of the speakers for PAC itself were exceptional, and the clinical presentations by the Pharmacists from America for the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy made us hungry for more. You really should try to attend PAC in 2002 in Hobart as this year's program promises to be even better.

This lack of time involves many areas - time to be a Pharmacist, time to be the manager and book-keeper, time to be the retail sales supervisor, payroll clerk, telephonist, stock controller, accountant, delivery driver and so many more roles we perform each day in our pharmacies. We have developed the skills to perform all of these roles as we have progressed along our career path but have we lost sight of the fact that we have a Pharmacy degree and we are first and foremost Pharmacists.

The final presenter at PAC 2001, Mark McKeon, provided an invigorating digression from the focus of PAC and he provided us with a few take home messages with 'cease being the General Manager to all' as his number one priority.

As you sit and ponder all of the roles you pack into a busy week and you reflect as to where you are going and where you have been, take time to postulate how you can improve your 'time balance'. One of the key areas that I personally feel we are all guilty of is under utilisation of our key staff members. Pharmacy assistants are not and should not be your average 'checkout chick mentality. These staff members are a vital asset and the move to the 'Recognition of Prior Learning' process and the development of the 'National Competency Standards for Pharmacy Assistants' have been a major leap forward in recognising and rewarding these staff members for the 'extra' they give as Pharmacy Assistants.

But it is now up to every individual Pharmacist to go back and appraise each member of their staff to discover how much more value is sitting in there and not being utilised. One of the key tools in this assessment process is the Quality Care Pharmacy Program. The team standards are just that-the standards that your team can develop and utilise in the practice of Pharmacy. These standards should be discussed and developed by the Pharmacy team to a workable level for your Pharmacy. This process takes time but if you do the work while working on your QCPP you will reap the benefits many fold and gain 'time' in your daily schedule.

When critically appraising each member of your team you may discover some who are 'treading water'. Take the time to discover why they are doing this-have they been forgotten along the way, never given any goals or career path to follow, never given any responsibility, neglected financially, relegated to bins and footpath sweeping for the last five years!

One of the major areas that a Pharmacist can gain time involves staff training. First you have to encourage the staff to learn more about their position and then move on to develop their knowledge base. As part of QCPP, it is vital that you develop a staff training program and make it into a living and breathing program. Many Pharmacists are content to allow staff to attend company representative training and that will do-this is very far from the truth. This training can have a very narrow focus and certainly does not teach any product evaluation skills.

The development of the 'Standards for the Provision of Pharmacist Only and Pharmacy Medicines in Community Pharmacy' is a key tool in developing your staff training program. Standard one states "The pharmacy has adequate human, material and financial resources to promote the quality use of non-prescription medicines as part of a more general primary health care service.

Pharmacy is very fortunate that there are resources other than representative trainings available-PSA Pharmacy Self Care program is a major resource that provides excellent educational material and an assessment process. The material in this program is not biased by drug company loyalty and covers all areas relating to the topic. All staff should be encouraged to enrol and complete their monthly modules.

Empowerment is one of the major catch cries of the 21st century and as the Pharmacist and leader of the team you are the person who can deliver this to your team, but beware, along the way that team may just empower you to working smarter, strive for more goals and enjoy being a Pharmacist again.