Abstract
New tasks are being developed for pharmacy technicians in community practice. The objectives of this study were to (1) assess the willingness of community pharmacy technicians to perform new tasks, and (2) to identify factors affecting technicians in assuming new tasks in community pharmacy practice. An online survey asked about the respondent characteristics, involvement in pharmacy technician tasks, willingness to perform emerging pharmacy technician tasks, and influences on pharmacy technicians’ performance of emerging tasks. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all items. A total of 639 usable surveys from community pharmacy technicians were used in the analyses. The respondents reported a mean of 11.5 years working as a pharmacy technician, with 79.2% working full time. Technicians reported high willingness to perform four emerging tasks, moderate willingness for six tasks, and low willingness to perform two tasks. The low willingness tasks were administering a vaccination and drawing a blood sample with a finger stick. Four workplace influences on willingness to perform emerging tasks were insufficient staffing, insufficient time to complete additional tasks, employers not classifying technicians based on specialized skills, and usually feeling stress at work. It appears likely that pharmacy technicians will be willing to perform the new tasks needed to support the emerging patient care services in community pharmacies.
Highlights
Community pharmacy practice continues to evolve as payers seek higher quality care for limited payment, providers pursue improved coordination of care, healthcare systems strive for collaborative care models, and chronically ill patients prefer care from a pharmacist they know [1,2,3]
639 were usable surveys from people working as community pharmacy technicians which were used in the analyses described in this article
Community pharmacy technicians reported being willing to perform almost all of the emerging tasks that were rated in this study
Summary
Community pharmacy practice continues to evolve as payers seek higher quality care for limited payment, providers pursue improved coordination of care, healthcare systems strive for collaborative care models, and chronically ill patients prefer care from a pharmacist they know [1,2,3]. While pharmacists are being called upon to provide greater patient care through collaborative and other innovative healthcare models, pharmacy technicians are undertaking new roles in community pharmacy practice. Some growth has occurred with these services, as pharmacy payment and care models evolve, it is likely that these services, and others, will continue to become a part of community pharmacy practice [12,13] To succeed in this environment, community pharmacies will need a strong supply of well-trained and motivated pharmacy technicians. Such technicians can free up pharmacists to deliver additional patient care services, while performing new tasks themselves
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