Hospital Pharmacist
2008;15:225-226
June 2008

Developing accredited checking technicians in technical services

By Sally Kemp, RegPharmTech

A national framework has been developed for the accreditation and assessment of technicians who carry out product checks in technical services. This article describes how the framework was established and outlines the plans for the future

Focus on technicians series

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Several years ago an accreditation and assessment scheme was set up for pharmacy technicians undertaking accuracy checking in technical services in the South West of England.

Now, approximately 30 technicians have become accredited across the region and the framework has been extended across England and Wales.

As well as developing the role of the technician, this scheme helps improve patient safety by providing error information through the assessment programme.

Drivers

The key driver for the framework was to improve patient safety and to add to the career pathway for staff working in technical services.

A survey sent by South West Medicines Information and Training to technical services managers in the region in 2004 revealed that they wanted their support staff to be accredited for undertaking checking activities.

Feedback from the South West senior pharmacy managers group confirmed the need for this accreditation, and the need for technician role development in technical services.

Development of the national framework for checking accreditation for technicians in technical services followed the success of checking accreditation for technicians based in the dispensary, and medicines management accreditation for ward-based staff.

Accreditation

A working group from the South West comprising technical services managers, pharmacy technicians and quality control pharmacists set up a local accreditation scheme that consisted of attendance at a two-day workshop followed by the collection of evidence of accurately checking a number of items.

Assessment is divided into four modules:

• Total parenteral nutrition

• Centralised intravenous additive service

• Cytotoxics

• Batch preparation

Each module is divided into two units: “pre-process” checks (ie, checking trays, worksheets and labels once assembled) and “in-process” checks (checking aseptic preparation of drugs, diluents, volumes). Staff need to check 100 items, comprising checks from both pre-process and in-process units. Each item may require several checks (eg, labels, worksheets, volumes), which can add up to over 1,000 checks in total.

The assessment is checked by the person who would normally carry out the check, the responsible pharmacist, or a person nominated by the responsible pharmacist.

Following a pilot in five hospitals in the South West, the scheme was rolled out to all hospitals in the region. A working group comprising national production and education committees was then established to develop this work into a national framework.

Training

The staff member being accredited is trained on aspects such as professional standards and responsibilities, legal requirements, errors (frequency and potential harm), communication and good checking practice.

It was a challenge to transfer the accreditation scheme across different hospitals because all units use different processes for product assembly and production. National reporting methods were needed, and standardised manuals were created and sent to each trust’s training department.

The two-day workshops provide an opportunity for technicians to get together and share ideas, and the format of these has been standardised both across the region and nationally. Standard assessment paperwork has also been designed.

Benefits

The aim of the scheme is to standardise training and to demonstrate that staff can prepare aseptic products accurately. The accreditation scheme enables pharmacy staff to monitor their individual competencies and to be assessed against a defined regional standard.

Another key benefit of this scheme is increased error reporting and thus determination of the type and frequency of errors made during aseptic production. We encourage technical services managers to report all error data to the Pharmaceutical Aseptic Services Committee national error reporting scheme.

The accreditation programme is open to all staff working in technical services. Although it was designed for technicians and most of those accredited so far have been senior technicians, it can also be used to train assistant technical officers, preregistration trainees and pharmacists.

Future plans

With patient safety and reduction in error rates being at the forefront of all our group’s training developments, the next step is to look at competency-based frameworks for different roles and different aspects of aseptic preparation for all members of the pharmacy workforce.

These frameworks would link to the general and advanced level frameworks that have been developed by the Competency Development and Evaluation Group.

A national framework for final checking is also in progress. This will be aimed at pharmacists and experienced pharmacy technicians within aseptic services. The framework will provide a robust structure for final checking and may be used by individual hospital trusts and regional centres that wish to develop and train their workforce in this area.

This framework will only deal with the final check — responsibility of release of a product will still lie with the pharmacist. This framework in still in the consultation phase and is due to be released before the end of the year.

We expect the frameworks developed so far to have a positive impact on aseptic services departments and to reduce error rates. Aseptic services has previously lacked any competency training developments, and we are looking forward to the results of local, regional and national evaluations.