Make your voice heard
Pharmacists need assertiveness training. That suggestion came from John D’Arcy, chief executive of the National Pharmaceutical Association, when he was chairing a session on leadership and pharmacy at the British
Pharmaceutical Conference earlier this week.
Such an idea might be anathema to some sections of the profession. However,
it could be an increasingly appealing idea to those pharmacists who are
concerned that if the profession does not keep a sharp lookout, developments
in the NHS will pass them by and they will miss the opportunities to
become key players in the provision of health care.
The question is, why do people like Mr D’Arcy believe that pharmacists
would benefit from such training? Why do some pharmacists lack confidence
when they are in meetings with other health care professionals and health
service managers? Many pharmacists accept that, as a group, they can
be introspective, some even going so far as to describe their colleagues
as “blinkered”.
There are, no doubt, hundreds of different psychological and sociological
theories to explain why pharmacists behave like they do. PhD theses could
be written round why the profession as a whole seems so reluctant to
come forward, even though there are hundreds of individual pharmacists
who promote themselves and their skills effectively.
One possibility, also raised at the BPC leadership session, particularly
with regard to the relationship of community pharmacists with GPs, is
that pharmacists are often necessarily the reactive partners: they have
to wait for a diagnosis to be made and the prescription to be written
before their skills can be used. However, in clinical situations where
pharmacists’ skills are not so subservient they may be held in
higher regard and, therefore, will think more highly of themselves.
Radical thinkers might wish schools of pharmacy to put assertiveness
training on the undergraduate curriculum now but, although that will
help the future generation, it will do little for pharmacists today,
struggling to make their voices heard.
One way for pharmacists to assert themselves is to go out and look for
the opportunities, take hold of them and do something with them (pharmacists
who wait to be approached could be waiting forever). First time round,
the service created as a result may not be perfect, but that will not
matter. More importantly, it will be a start and the more pharmacists
who take that approach, the harder it will be for other health professions,
their primary care organisation and their hospital trust to ignore them.
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