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New PRP Focus Areas for Pharmacy Technicians in Community Practice Coming Soon
At its June 2017 meeting, the College Board approved the modification of the Pharmacy Professionals Review Focus Areas for Pharmacy Technicians in community practice to make them more applicable to their scope of practice.
The new focus areas are now aligned with those for pharmacy technicians in hospital practice.
Why the Change?
When the Practice Review Program was initially launched in February of 2015, both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in community practice were reviewed on the following four focus areas:
- Patient Identification Verification
- Profile Check
- Counselling
- Documentation
Feedback from pharmacy professionals and the College’s committees, together with feedback and results from over 120 pharmacy technicians who have been reviewed made it clear that profile check and counselling do not fall within a pharmacy technician’s scope of practice and are not an effective focus area for the review. As a result, the Practice Review Program began to develop new focus areas for pharmacy technicians that were more applicable to their scope of practice.
Under the direction of the Practice Review Committee, the College used input from pharmacy professionals and the College’s committees together with a review of the College’s bylaws and policies to assess which additional areas within a pharmacy technician’s scope of practice had the most impact on patient safety. The result was the development of two new focus areas, Product Distribution and Collaboration.
- Patient Identification Verification
- Product Distribution (new)
- Collaboration (new)
- Documentation
Each focus area is designed to be relevant for pharmacy technicians practising in community or hospital settings. Collaboration will be reviewed through the College’s existing bylaws and policies as well as the Model Standards of Practice for Pharmacy Technicians from the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities. Product Distribution will be reviewed against College bylaws and policies that were recently amended to provide clear requirements for the preparation and final check of prescription products.
What’s Next?
The new focus areas for pharmacy technicians were first introduced as part of the expansion of the Practice Review Program into hospital practice in February of 2017. With approval at the June 2017 Board meeting, the two new focus areas will be integrated into Pharmacy Professionals Reviews for pharmacy technicians in community practice.
Pharmacy technicians in community practice can expect to see the new focus areas in their practice reviews starting this Fall. Stay tuned for additional information and resources.
Learn more about the Practice Review Program, including how to prepare for your practice review, at bcpharmacists.org/prp.
- Practice Review Program
