Hospital Pharmacist
2006;13:339-340
October 2006

Developing a medicines management course for pharmacy technicians

By Sheila Woolfrey, PhD, MRPharmS, FCPP

Training pharmacy technicians for extended roles has traditionally taken place “in house”. This article describes a programme to develop a standardised course for medicines management technicians working in the north-east of England and Cumbria

Focus on technicians series

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SUMMARY

Increased opportunities for pharmacists’ employment in different sectors of the profession, such as within general practitioners’ surgeries and primary care trusts, together with a general shortage of pharmacists, has led to the role-development of pharmacy support staff.

For example, assistant technical officers (ATOs) have taken on roles such as dispensing that were previously the remit of technicians. ATOs also carry out much of the routine work within aseptic and manufacturing units, and many pharmacy distribution centres are wholly run by ATOs. In turn, technicians have taken on roles traditionally performed by pharmacists, such as the final accuracy checking of dispensed products, basic clinical screening of prescription charts and taking drug histories.

These initiatives have released pharmacists’ time (and technicians’ time, as appropriate), thereby increasing the capacity of pharmacy departments to provide patient-focused clinical services. It has also become apparent that role-development can be taken even further at ward level, integrating members of pharmacy teams with members of ward-based teams.

Before carrying out any of these extended roles, including those at at ward level, appropriate training is required. The medicines management programmes provided for pharmacy technicians have traditionally been carried out in-house, meaning that they are not standardised, which can make it more difficult for staff moving between trusts to have their education, training and skills recognised.

To address this, the Northern Sector Clinical Pharmacy Network (NSCPN), the Northern Sector Technicians’ Continuing Professional Development Group (NSTCPDG) and the regional Pharmacy Education and Training Office (PETO) set about developing a training scheme for technicians working in the north-east of England and Cumbria. Such a system enables the training of a number of technicians to be delivered centrally and means that participating trusts know what training their technicians have received and what ward-based tasks they are capable of performing. An initial course was developed during 2003, with some modifications, such as modularisation, having being carried out since then.