Community pharmacist: delivering new PCMS services
 Fiona Morris is a pharmacy manager for Lloydspharmacy
in Cumnock, Ayrshire. When not working, she spends time with her husband
and two children. Her other interests include amateur photography and
needlecraft.
Reflection
I have delivered several new services via a “pharmaceutical care
model scheme” (PCMS). The accreditation process, followed by service
provision, exemplifies the CPD cycle. My
reflection begins as soon as I become aware that a PCMS is in the pipeline — this
may be because I have heard a rumour about it or because I have received
a letter or e-mail from the PCMS co-ordinator. It is relatively easy to
formulate a plan of action; preparing to deliver the new service generally
involves attending a training event or completing the prescribed distance
learning pack, or both, and studying the implementation pack provided,
which contains service specifications, relevant paperwork, and information
on remuneration. Such information has been spoon-fed to me, but so what?
It is a prerequisite to delivering the new service, I have without exception
learnt from it, and it inevitably leads on to further reading. The action
stage of the cycle is self-explanatory — I execute my plan.
As for evaluation, once I start to deliver the service examples of how
I am using my new knowledge in practice materialise and I can document
positive customer feedback. One example is a patient who participated in
the asthma PCMS expressing gratitude that she had been able to exchange
her enormous shopping bag for the neat little Burberry handbag she had
always wanted. She had never been offered an alternative to the Volumatic
spacer she had to carry everywhere because she found it impossible to co-ordinate
activation of the inhaler with her breathing. A simple telephone call to
the asthma clinic was enough to change her prescription and she now benefits
from a breath-actuated inhaler. If I had not worked through the PCMS questionnaire
with this patient, she probably would have never volunteered that she found
the Volumatic too bulky to carry around. Moreover, it puts a smile on my
face every time I see this patient with her new handbag. And I have many
more examples of how my CPD has had a direct influence on the well-being
of a patient.
After I qualified as a pharmacist in 1994, I regularly performed CPD in
some shape or form. Back then, however, I did not call what I did CPD.
I called it “checking something in the British National Formulary”, “reading
my Journal”, or “distance learning”. Perhaps my learning
then was not reflective enough; probably I picked only those subjects which
were of particular interest to me rather than identifying actual needs.
I am sure that I must have reacted to obvious knowledge gaps, but I cannot
say for sure because I did nothing to record my learning. Nowadays, I record
my CPD online, using the Society’s website. Learning how to accomplish
this was a CPD cycle in itself (I am not particularly computer literate)
but I now believe this to be the most efficient method of record keeping.
It takes only a few minutes to log on and add to my records as and when
I see fit.
CPD is not just something that has to be done to placate the Society — it
is a truly useful and versatile tool I can use to improve and update my
skills and knowledge. This directly translates into improved performance
in the workplace (or I am not doing CPD effectively). In terms of CPD,
I am mistress of my own destiny, tailoring my own development to become
a better pharmacist, which is, after all, the whole point. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal