Are all pharmacy staff interested in potential future roles?

Abstract

Whilst there is a push for pharmacists to provide advanced clinical services, it is important to acknowledge that many staff working within community pharmacies are satisfied with their current role.

Consumers and Carers Versus Pharmacy Staff: Do Their Priorities for Australian Pharmacy Services Align?

“…Pharmacy support staff were more in tune with consumer preferences than pharmacists, which reflects their key customer interaction role [45] as the first person that consumers usually speak to. Ultimately, information needs to be tailored to the specific needs of the consumer [46], in a manner that consumers understand and makes them feel 'safe' and respected.…”

Can they do it? Comparing the views of pharmacists and technicians to the introduction of an advanced technician role†

“…Previous NZ studies have shown that technicians are willing to take on a more advanced role and any additional training required if the opportunity arose [21,22]. But it is important to note that while there are many technicians who were interested in advanced roles, there are still those that prefer the current situation [16]…”

“…Recently, the impact on support staff has been studied alongside the pharmacists' opinion in the UK setting [13,14]. But there is almost no work investigating how technicians view these changes and the impact on support staff in the NZ setting [15,16]…”

Experiences of pharmacy staff during the introduction of the checking technician role in New Zealand

“…The redistribution of roles within the pharmacy setting may allow pharmacists to embrace roles as medication managers and allow them to relinquish technical and non‐clinical roles. Currently, in New Zealand (NZ), many administrative tasks and non‐pharmacist specific tasks/roles have been redistributed to pharmacy technicians . This has been enabled in part because for over five decades pharmacy technicians in NZ have had a formal training programme in place and have shown aptitude to take on additional roles in some settings …”