Publication
THE PHARMACY TECHNICIAN WITHIN A CHILDREN'S HOSPICE: BUILDING NEW ROLES
Bradshaw L, Williams S · BMJ Paediatrics Open · 2025
Background Hope House Children's Hospice supports seriously ill children by offering respite, symptom management and end of life care across their two hospices which cover Shropshire, Cheshire, Powys, and North Wales. Combined the hospice's reach approximately 260 families and employ around 146 staff to deliver specialist care. Context The hospices are primarily nurse led with a visiting GP and access to a consultant in paediatric palliative medicine to provide support. Nursing staff were undertaking all tasks relating to medicines management, with nominated staff to complete medicines reconciliation, training, and auditing. Medicines are rated the highest risk area within care delivery, and with shortages in nursing staff the hospice identified a need for specialist support within this area and proposed the introduction of a pharmacy technician. The first part time pharmacy technician role was advertised in 2019 and within a few months it became apparent that a full-time role would be required, this was then replicated across both sites. The role would encompass medicines reconciliation, training and education, medicines optimisation (including incident analysis), auditing, procurement, and counselling. To understand the impact of the pharmacy technician role within the hospice a questionnaire was sent to a selection of care team staff to evaluate how the role had been received, whether it was felt to be beneficial and any ideas for future development. Alongside this a deep dive of interventions made by the technicians at both sites was undertaken. Conclusion The introduction of the pharmacy technician role has enabled nursing staff to utilise their skills more effectively and focus on providing expert care to the hospice residents. Professionals and families have a dedicated point of contact for medicine support and the hospice team have access to the pharmacy technician's specialist knowledge and skills. The role of the technician has expanded since its introduction in 2019. Two full time posts ensure there are safe and effective medicine management processes in place. The role is now embedded into the hospice and is a fundamental part of the hospice care team. In the future there is potential for further development of the technician role within the hospice setting which could continue to enhance the service. As far as we are aware Hope House Hospices are the only children's hospices that employ pharmacy technicians. It would be good to see more healthcare settings benefiting from the implementation of roles such as these by investing in the right person with the right specialised skill set to carry out the right job.
Synced from the TRENDS in Pediatric Palliative Care Zotero library, curated by The Siden Research Team. ICPCN does not host or verify the full text.