Pharmacy assistants

listed key roles as customer interactions and sales Y27632 focus, noting that the dispensary was outside their area of responsibility. Technicians identified their role as being dispensary focused while pharmacists saw their role as the ‘final check’ to ensure accuracy as well as providing dispensing, counselling and managerial roles. With potential future roles, the assistants were less interested than the other groups, citing contentment with current situation and training as a barrier. Some technicians indicated an interest in furthering their roles, but many were reluctant and saw that additional training was too time consuming. Whilst pharmacists appeared to be interested in further scopes of practice, they appeared more reluctant to do this at the expense

of handing dispensing responsibility to a non-pharmacist. Conclusions  HIF inhibitor 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. “
“To explore the views of New Zealand pharmacists on bowel cancer screening, particularly with regards to faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) kits, self-perceived knowledge on FOBT kits and barriers, motivators and experiences with selling and counselling consumers with respect to FOBT kits. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face or by telephone with 20 community pharmacists in the Auckland region. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and data were coded and analysed using NVivo software to identify key themes. Participant pharmacists believed that they were well placed to provide advice on FOBT kits to consumers. Barriers to selling the kits included cost and perceived lack of test sensitivity of the kits, poor consumer demand, pharmacists’ lack of training and information, and a belief that selling FOBT kits was outside the pharmacists’ scope of practice. Motivators to selling

the DOK2 kits included customer convenience, ease of use, confidence in the kits and embracing new roles for pharmacists. Pharmacists were concerned that use of the kits may increase the burden on the public health system through customer anxiety over test results; however, they agreed that there was a need for bowel cancer screening and awareness and that people concerned about bowel cancer should make visiting their general practitioner a priority. Pharmacists’ views were mixed. Pharmacists’ training and competence with respect to the provision of bowel cancer kits, and how a bowel cancer screening service can be developed to optimise public health outcomes, need to be addressed. “
“Problem-based learning (PBL) was introduced into the first 3 years of the undergraduate degree course at the University of East Anglia (UEA) to both enhance the student learning experience and to enable it to meet external course accreditation criteria.