Anne Leversha

A severe shortage of clinical pharmacists, especially in rural and remote areas, presents a challenge to the provision of comprehensive pharmaceutical care for hospital patients. At Latrobe Regional Hospital, Traralgon, an innovative ward role has been developed for pharmacy technicians to relieve the pharmacist of non‐clinical duties. For example, the assembling of complete and detailed information about patients' medication at admission involves non‐clinical tasks such as photocopying drug charts, collecting the patient's own medication that has been brought into hospital, listing the drugs which have been left at home, and informing patients ofthe hospital's policy with regard to medication. The training of technicians to carry out these tasks allows the pharmacist to concentrate on clinical issues. As a result, most of the patients are reviewed by the pharmacist within 24 hours of admission, clinical issues are addressed promptly, and the discharge process is efficient and comprehensive. Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and nurses were surveyed to determine the impact the roster had on patient care, on the pharmacy and pharmacy staff, and on the ward.

The ‘Rural Pharmacist Training and Support Program’ was a pilot project that was conducted by the Monash University Centre for Rural Health. It examined the implementation of Pharmacy Boar...