Pharmacy skills

• Standards that pharmacy professionals meet

  • Provide person-centred care
  • Work in partnership with others
  • Communicate effectively
  • Maintain/use/develop professional knowledge and skills
  • Exercise professional judgement
  • Behave in a professional manner
  • Respect privacy and maintain the person's confidentiality
  • Speak up when they have concerns/when things go wrong
  • Demonstrate leadership
• Professionalism

  Standards that pharmacy professionals meet
• Pharmacy professionals provide person-centred care
• Pharmacy professionals work in partnership with others
• Pharmacy professionals communicate effectively
• Pharmacy professionals maintain, use and develop their professional knowledge and skills
• Pharmacy professionals exercise professional judgement
• Pharmacy professionals behave in a professional manner
• Pharmacy professionals respect privacy and maintain the person's confidentiality
• Pharmacy professionals speak up when they have concerns or when things go wrong
• Pharmacy professionals demonstrate leadership
• Professional Judgement

  1. Identify the ethical dilemma/professional issue

  2. Gather relevant information

  3. Identify the possible options

  4. Weigh up the benefits and risks of each option

  5. Choose an option

  6. Record
• Code of Conduct


  • Make patients your first concern
  • Use your professional judgement in the interests of patients and the public
  • Show respect for others
  • Encourage patients and the public to participate in decisions about their care
  • Develop your professional knowledge and competence
  • Be honest and trustworthy
  • Take responsibility for your working practices
• Uses of medicines


  • Treat diseases
  • Prolong life
  • Improve quality of life
  • Prevent disease
  • Alleviate symptoms
  • Diagnose disease
• Heroin


  Analgesic painkiller
• Heroin


  • Good clinical uses: Acute pain, chronic pain, pulmonary oedema, myocardial infarction
  • Very potent and effective analgesic (painkiller)
  • Dose can be increased 1-2mg as tolerance occurs
  • Highly soluble
• Anabolic steroids


  • Bad: Acne, water retention, male pattern baldness, cardiovascular effects, liver effects
  • Good: Used in treating disease, increase strength and lean body mass, decrease body fat, increase aggressiveness
• Antibiotics


  • Pneumonia
  • HIV
  • MRSA
  • C. difficile
  • Sepsis
  • Surgical prophylaxis
• Antibiotics


  • Common cause: Bacteria
  • Used to treat: Urinary/kidney infection, persistent cough, skin infections, meningitis
• Prescribing medicines is the most common healthcare intervention
• 10,000 doses given daily in a typical hospital
• Total no. of items dispensed in 2018 was 1.1 billion, up from 752 million in 2006
• Processes involved in the use of medicines

  • Procurement
  • Storage
  • Prescribing
  • Preparation
  • Transport
  • Dispensing
  • Collection
  • Administration
  • Disposal
• Legal categories of medicines

  • POM (prescription-only medication)
  • P (pharmacy)
  • GSL (general sales list)
• Controlled drugs have greater levels of control
• Medicines can be therapeutic or non-therapeutic
• Appropriate polypharmacy


  Prescribing for an individual for complex conditions/situations where medicine's use has been proven
• Problematic polypharmacy


  Prescribing multiple medicines inappropriately where the intended benefit of medicines is not clear
• Adherence


  Involving patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence
• Non-adherence


  Intentional: Patient decides not to follow treatment recommendations

  Unintentional: Patient wants to follow but has practical problems
• Estimated £90 million worth of unused prescription medications retained in individuals' homes, £110 million returned to community pharmacies, and £50 million worth of NHS-supplied medicines disposed of unused by care homes
• 1. 7% of hospital admissions are due to adverse drug reactions, occurring in 10-20% of hospitalized patients and may be responsible for 1 in 1000 deaths
• Sectors where medicines are managed

  • Community pharmacy
  • Hospitals
  • Industry
  • Primary care (GP, clinics, care homes)
• Stakeholders involved in management of medicines

  • Doctors
  • Nurses
  • Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy technicians
  • Patients
  • Carers
• Roles involved in management of medicines

  • Prescribe
  • Monitor
  • Administer
  • Supply
  • Store
  • Prepare
  • Advise
  • Educate
  • Counsel
• Potential causes of medication errors

  • MORS (coding errors)
  • Incorrect diagnosis
  • Dose miscalculations
  • Incorrect drug administration
  • Lack of patient communication
• Potential causes of non-adherence to medicines

  • Intentional: Fear of side effects

  Unintentional: Capacity and resource limitations, misunderstanding, cost
• GSL


  General Sales List
• POM


  Prescription only medication
• Active Ingredients


  Name of active component in product, i.e. the drug