Relationship with other members of the healthcare team

15


Relationship with other members of the healthcare team




Study Points



image The other members of the healthcare team that work directly with the pharmacist


image The roles played by the other members of the healthcare team and how the pharmacist interacts with them


image The role of technicians, dispensers and medicine counter assistants and their qualifications


image The importance of leadership, delegation, negotiation and teamworking and how to achieve these



Introduction


Nowadays most pharmacists work as part of a team with other healthcare workers. If this team is to function efficiently to provide good pharmaceutical services to the public, then a good working relationship needs to be developed between all the members of the healthcare team. In many situations, the pharmacist will be the manager/supervisor or responsible person for the team. In other situations, the pharmacist may be part of a team but not responsible for the team, for example as a member of an ethics committee or team developing educational materials for use by ward staff in a hospital.


The relative position of the pharmacist in a team will determine the skills required to undertake an efficient role. If the pharmacist is responsible for the team, then the required skills will be leadership, managing/supervising and delegation. In order to delegate, the pharmacist must be confident the team has the required skills. If not, then an assessment of training needs and subsequent training will need to be organized. Negotiating skills will be needed and crucial if the pharmacist is part of, but not responsible for, a team. In such a situation, the pharmacist must be a good teamworker.



What is teamwork?


Teamwork can be defined as the process whereby people work together cooperatively to deliver goals. The goals will vary depending on the type of team but it is essential that these goals are well defined. In any team it is important that each member knows the role they play and how they contribute to the goals. The introduction of SOPs (see Ch. 11) has gone a long way in helping define each member’s role and responsibility as well as fulfilling UK clinical governance criteria (see Ch. 9).


The following skills and attributes are desirable for successful teamwork:



image Listening skills – within any team all members should be encouraged to speak out and offer suggestions for improvement which in turn may trigger other ideas from the other team members.


image Questioning skills – to always question why things are done the way they are and not to blindly accept something because that is the way it is always done.


image Respect – treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. This comes back to being an effective leader. Effective leaders command respect. However, all members of the team should be treated with respect by the team leader and other team members for the role that they play in the team. All members and their role in the team are necessary for a productive, efficient team.


image Helping – this is the true essence of teamwork and ensures that everyone is involved in reaching the goals.


image Sharing – this means sharing ideas and information. If one person keeps important information to himself or herself, then the team will not function properly. Sharing also means that no one person should take the glory for the team’s efforts as everyone has had a part to play.


image Collaborating – all members are encouraged to participate in the team and when there is a high level of collaboration an effective team emerges. This requires elements of trust, shared goals and clarity of roles.


image Communication – a skill required in all areas including by e-mail, at meetings where face-to-face communication is important or the written word. It is crucial not to be misunderstood at any level.



The healthcare team


The healthcare ‘team’ can be defined in a number of ways and will depend on the work environment of the pharmacist.


In community pharmacy, the immediate team that the pharmacist works with on a day-to-day basis is made up of:



The terminology will vary depending on the individual company or business.


The community pharmacist will also be involved with external people, depending on their job role – the extended ‘team’:



image A pharmacist providing services to residential or nursing homes will be in constant communication with the care home staff and a variety of clients, e.g. the elderly, children and psychiatric patients


image Communication will take place with the GP practices and their staff on a regular basis depending on requirements, e.g. receptionists, practice managers, practice nurses, practice physiotherapists, asthma and stoma nurses, etc.


image The pharmacist will be in contact with healthcare professionals in the local area, for example, community/district nurses, health visitors, psychiatric nurses, Macmillan nurses, physiotherapists


image The community pharmacist may liaise with the local drug misuse teams depending on the services provided in that pharmacy


image Other groups of professionals the pharmacist may have contact with include dentists, chiropodists and optometrists and social workers


image Community pharmacists will have to work with local commissioners and their pharmacist representatives on clinical governance matters and contract negotiations.


This list is not exhaustive but gives an idea of the variety of people/professions the community pharmacist has to interact with on a daily basis when dealing with specific problems related to individual patients’ care, selection of drugs by the healthcare professional, dealing with drug interactions, etc.


In a hospital pharmacy, the pharmacist will interact with the pharmacy team as well as the healthcare professionals directly involved in the patients’ care on a daily basis and with far more ease of contact than the community pharmacist has with the GP. When dealing with the junior doctors and nursing staff in hospital, the pharmacist will have a teaching/supportive role while assuming an advisory role on the use and side-effects of drugs when dealing with more experienced staff. Hospital pharmacists will have contact with other professionals with regard to discharging patients into the community, such as social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dentists and the local drug misuse team. Within the hospital environment the pharmacist may have to become involved with the various hospital committees, e.g. drug safety, ethics, general administration, formulary, etc. and interact with a range of professional as well as administrative staff. In addition, hospital pharmacists will be in contact with community pharmacists to ensure a seamless supply of medicines to those patients discharged from hospital on specialized drug regimens.


The changing role of the pharmacist (see Ch. 1) has made it even more important that the pharmacist depends on their healthcare team to free up the time to allow them to deliver the various services required by the new pharmacy contracts. The pharmacist is moving further away from the traditional role of dispensing to advising patients and customers on their medicines and offering additional services.



The community healthcare team



Medicines counter assistants/healthcare assistants


From 1 July 1996 it has been a professional requirement in the UK that each member of staff whose work in a pharmacy will regularly include the sale of medicines, must have completed a course or be undertaking an accredited course relevant to their line of work. The regulatory body for England, Wales and Scotland, set the requirements for these courses and undertake a quality assurance process which leads to the course being accredited.


There is a requirement that the member of staff should be enrolled on an appropriate course within 3 months of starting their role and have completed it in 3 years.


The following training programmes for medicines counter assistants/healthcare assistants have been accredited by the GPhC:



Medicines counter assistants/healthcare assistants will primarily be found in community pharmacy. Their training usually takes the form of ‘workbook-led on-the-job learning’, meeting the above requirements for accreditation with the pharmacist acting as the tutor. This allows the relationship to develop and the pharmacist to realize the potential and limitations of these members of staff.



Dispensing/pharmacy assistants


The training required is much more in-depth than for the medicines counter/healthcare assistant to reflect the variation in role and responsibilities. The job title will vary depending on the sector of pharmacy the person works in and indeed the company/business they work for – dispenser, dispensing assistant, pharmacy assistant, assistant technical officer, etc. Regardless of which sector of pharmacy they are working in, what they all have in common is that they are working under the supervision of the pharmacist.


Since January 2005, there has been the professional requirement that dispensing/pharmacy assistants are competent in the areas in which they are working to a minimum standard which is equivalent to the Pharmacy Services Skills S/NVQ level 2 (QCF) qualification or are undertaking such training.


This applies to staff working in the following areas:


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Jun 24, 2016 | Posted by in PHARMACY | Comments Off on Relationship with other members of the healthcare team

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