Hospital Pharmacist
2006;13:379-380
November 2006

Use technicians to train nurses to help manage discharge medicines

By Tanya Cameron

With the development of their roles comes the need for pharmacy technicians to find more efficient ways of working. This article looks at a scheme where technicians train nurses to deal with discharge medicines

Focus on technicians series

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SUMMARY

Moves to develop the role of technicians, together with issues of cost effectiveness, mean that there is a need to bring about more efficient ways of working, both on wards and in the pharmacy department. At Cheltenham General Hospital, Gloucestershire, one way in which we thought that efficiency could be improved was to train nurses (who are available on wards at all times, including evenings and weekends) to deal with discharge medicines, where appropriate.

As with many hospitals, a technician-led “one-stop” service is in place on many wards at Cheltenham General Hospital, with pharmacy staff having responsibility for taking medication histories, assessing patients’ own drugs for use on the ward as well as managing medicines for discharge. We thought that it would be beneficial for appropriately-trained ward nurses to become more involved.

Our aim is for nurses, working on wards where a one-stop service is in place, to be able to assess the contents of the one-stop locker against the discharge prescription and, where appropriate, discharge the patient without needing further pharmacy input. This article describes the training given to nurses before they are deemed competent to take on this role, and the support they receive from pharmacy technicians. It also discusses some of the benefits and challenges of this new way of working.