Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the following statements about the Responsible Pharmacist legislation and supervision (using the scale 1=strongly agree, 2=agree, 3=disagree, 4=strongly disagree):
1. There was a need for the Responsible Pharmacist legislation to be introduced in community pharmacy
2. There was a need for the Responsible Pharmacist legislation to be introduced in hospital pharmacy
3. Legislation should be changed to allow pharmacy support staff to perform more tasks when the responsible pharmacist is absent
4. I am not confident that pharmacy support staff are competent enough to perform more tasks when the responsible pharmacist is absent.
5. Now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals, they should be more accountable for the tasks they perform
6. Now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals they should be able to perform more tasks when there is no pharmacist physically present
7. Since their registration, the role of pharmacy technicians in pharmacy has changed
Figure 3-3 shows the mean agreement levels for these seven statements for each professional group. The only statement which on average achieved agreement from all professional groups was ‘now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals, they should be more accountable for the tasks they perform’ (mean of <= 2) 8. However, the negatively phrased statement eliciting views on confidence in support staff competence achieved consistent disagreement from all groups,
suggesting that all were agreed that they were confident that pharmacy support staff are competent enough to perform more tasks when the responsible pharmacist is absent. Community pharmacy technicians were more in favour of legislation being changed to enable pharmacy technicians to perform more activities when the responsible pharmacist was absent than the other professional groups. Similar mean levels (range 2.46-2.60) were seen across all professional groups concerning whether or not the role of pharmacy technicians had changed since becoming registered
professionals.
3.3.7.1 Differences between professional groups
A series of chi-squared tests were performed to test for any significant associations (𝑝 <0.05) between professional role and agreement with the statements exploring perceptions of supervision.
Legislation should be changed to allow pharmacy support staff to perform more tasks when the responsible pharmacist is absent
Community pharmacy technicians had the highest percentage of agreement for this statement (81.5% agreed) and more than three-quarters of hospital pharmacy technicians also agreed with this
statement (75.5%). Slightly lower levels were seen for hospital pharmacists (64.5% agreed) and less than half of community pharmacists agreed (48.5%).
Significant associations were found between:
hospital and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 6.52, 𝑝 =0.007), with a higher proportion of hospital pharmacists in agreement with this statement
hospital and community pharmacy technicians (χ2 (1) = 3.62, 𝑝 =0.036), with a higher proportion of community pharmacy technicians in agreement with this statement
community pharmacy technicians and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 103.93, 𝑝 <0.001), with a much higher proportion of community pharmacy technicians in agreement with this statement
hospital pharmacy technicians and hospital pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 3.61, 𝑝 =0.042), with a slightly higher proportion of hospital pharmacy technicians in agreement with this statement
8
I am not confident that pharmacy support staff are competent enough to perform more tasks when the responsible pharmacist is absent.
As this statement involved a negative, greater disagreement with this statement indicates more confidence in pharmacy support staff.
Around three-quarters of community (73.5%) and hospital (74.6%) pharmacy technicians disagreed with this statement. 65.1% of hospital pharmacists disagreed with this statement, and less than half of community pharmacists disagreed (48.2%), indicating that community pharmacists were least confident about the competence of support staff.
Significant associations were found between:
hospital and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 8.06, 𝑝 =0.003), with a higher proportion of hospital pharmacists disagreeing with this statement
community pharmacy technicians and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 56.68, 𝑝 <0.001), with a much higher proportion of community pharmacy technicians disagreeing with this statement
No significant differences were found between the disagreement levels of hospital pharmacy technicians and hospital pharmacists, and also between hospital pharmacy technicians and community pharmacy technicians indicating similar levels of confidence in support staff.
Now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals, they should be more accountable for the tasks they perform
This statement achieved a high level of agreement from all professional groups. Hospital pharmacists expressed the highest level (97.9% agreed), followed by community pharmacists (90.6%), hospital pharmacy technician (82.2%) and community pharmacy technicians (79.6%). Significant associations were found between:
Hospital and community pharmacists - although both expressed high levels of agreement with this statement, the differences between them were still found to be significant (χ2 (1) = 5.61, 𝑝 =0.009), with a higher proportion of hospital pharmacists agreeing with this
statement
Community pharmacy technicians and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 20.63, 𝑝 <0.001) – although over three-quarters of community pharmacy technicians agreed with this
statement, a significantly higher proportion of community pharmacists were in agreement. Hospital pharmacy technicians and hospital pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 14.78, 𝑝 <0.001) – similar
to their community pharmacy counterparts, despite high agreement from hospital
pharmacy technicians, agreement levels for hospital pharmacists were significantly higher No significant differences were found between the agreement levels of hospital pharmacy
technicians and community pharmacy technicians, indicating similar levels of support for greater accountability from these groups.
Now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals they should be able to perform more tasks when there is no pharmacist physically present
Community pharmacy technicians expressed the highest levels of agreement with this statement (83.6%). Around three-quarters of hospital pharmacy technicians (76.8%) and hospital pharmacists (74.7%) also agreed with this statement. Just over half of community pharmacists were in support of pharmacy technicians performing more tasks during pharmacist absence (58.7%).
Significant associations were found between:
hospital and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 7.74, 𝑝 =0.003), with a higher proportion of hospital pharmacists agreeing with this statement
Community pharmacy technicians and community pharmacists (χ2 (1) = 66.15, 𝑝 <0.001) – a significantly higher proportion of community pharmacists were in agreement
hospital and community pharmacy technicians (χ2 (1) = 5.16, 𝑝 =0.016) - although over three-quarters of hospital pharmacy technicians agreed with this statement, a significantly higher proportion of community pharmacy technicians were in agreement
There were no significant differences between the agreement levels of hospital pharmacy technicians and hospital pharmacists, indicating similar agreement levels for this statement.
Since their registration, the role of pharmacy technicians in pharmacy has changed
Approximately half of all community pharmacists (48.9%), community pharmacy technicians (50%) and hospital pharmacy technicians (46.6%) agreed with this statement. A lower percentage of hospital pharmacists agreed with this statement (39%).
There were no significant associations found for this statement and any of the professional groups, indicating consensus regarding whether or not pharmacy technicians’ roles had changed since registration.
3.3.7.2 Views on supervision & accountability – Key points
Box 7: Views on supervision & accountability – Key points
There was general agreement by all professional groups that they were confident that pharmacy support staff are competent to perform further activities than they already do when the responsible pharmacist is absent.
All professional groups agreed that ‘now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals, they should be more accountable for the tasks they perform.’
While community pharmacists were the most reserved in terms of their agreement with letting pharmacy support staff perform certain activities, they expressed a high level of agreement that ‘now that pharmacy technicians are registered professionals, they should be more accountable for the tasks they perform’ (90.6%). This was the reverse for community pharmacy technicians, who were most confident to perform more activities during a pharmacist’s absence, yet were less sure about increased ‘accountability’ statement (79.6% agreement).
professional registration should underpin the extension of pharmacy technician
responsibilities (and possibly a differentiation from other support staff), many did not think that the role of pharmacy technicians had indeed changed since GPhC registration was introduced.