Changes to supervision will allow responsibilities to be delegated to pharmacy technicians. By definition, a pharmacy technician will have been educated to a specified level and will maintain their competence through CPD, some of which will have been recorded as part of their annual revalidation.

The skills and knowledge covered should include pharmacy law, prescription validity, good dispensing practice and good practice for managing stock alongside skills in counselling patients in the use of some medicines. It would be important to revisit some elements of a pharmacy technician’s knowledge and skills, especially if they registered as a technician some time ago.

They may be competent at doing a task, such as reporting near misses or dispensing errors, but managing the clinical governance process of error reporting may be new to them. 

Their pharmacy specific skills and knowledge also need to be supported by personal skills that will allow them to manage the work of the team as well as the processes. This might include delegation skills and giving feedback. It is important to recognise that a pharmacy technician will be taking on a management role in the dispensary. It is also important to regularly review performance through appraisals and agree plans to fill any skills gaps.

Activity

If you delegated the day-to-day management of the dispensary to a pharmacy technician, what would you expect to make decisions about before action is taken? What would you be happy for a pharmacy technician to make decisions about? What would you want to be informed about?