Partners in crime—or at least in the pharmacy

My last blog seemed to strike a chord with a number of readers, based on the comments on the blog post itself and messages I received from pharmacists and technicians I know. I want to reiterate that pharmacists who value, trust and respect technicians—and want to work with technicians to their full scope—do exist! I have the great fortune of working with them, both as college faculty I work with, and pharmacists who take students into their pharmacies for placement. Some of the comments brought to my attention were things I had never considered before. Some suggested that some pharmacists feel threatened by technicians—to which I immediately thought: Why would a pharmacist feel that way? But then the comments went on to explain that it could be because some pharmacists may not want to take on the expanded role of a pharmacist. Aha! That I can understand. There very well may be both pharmacists and technicians who went into their professions when their roles were specific. Perhaps, as both roles have been expanding over the years, it’s no longer what they signed up for. While I am all for expanding scopes of practice, perhaps some (both pharmacists and technicians) are afraid of or resistant to change. I think we can all relate to that in some way. Read: New year, new pharmacy A conversation with a pharmacist friend suggested the problem might be lack of knowledge about what a pharmacy technician can do. No way, I thought. They must know! A few conversations with a few more pharmacist friends suggested the same thing. They pointed out that pharmacists who have practising longer than technicians have in Ontario, for example, have had to learn about the role on their own. Unless they’re employing or recruiting technicians or actively working with them, pharmacists aren’t likely to worry about it too much. They also pointed out that new pharmacists don’t learn a whole lot about technicians. In one of my previous posts, What's in a name?, I talked about the frustration of pharmacy team members who are not technicians using the title technician (it also received a lot of comments and texts). If pharmacists aren’t entirely sure about the role and scope of practice of a pharmacy technician, then how can other members of the pharmacy team know about it? Or other healthcare professionals? Or the public? I think these things make it even clearer that we, as pharmacy technicians, need to advocate for ourselves in the workplace even more and educate others on our role and scope of practice. Read: Leaning into the scary It was also pointed out to me that some pharmacists have had experience working with technicians who weren’t all that competent. Fair enough, but we can’t paint all technicians with the same brush! Most of us have probably worked with other technicians, pharmacists, assistants and prescribers we didn’t think were great (or really were not very good) as well. That doesn’t mean we automatically assume all of them will be bad. I recently heard someone say finding a great technician is like finding a unicorn. The same can be said for finding a great pharmacist or assistant. There are likely a million other reasons why some technicians are facing barriers to working to their full scope, but we do know that it is possible. I know it’s easier said than done to say you just need to find the right pharmacist or the right pharmacy. Finding a unicorn won’t be easy. Maybe you don’t live in an area with these amazing unicorn pharmacists and moving isn’t a possibility. Maybe you’ve been waiting to get into a specific pharmacy where these amazing unicorn pharmacists exist and there just hasn’t been an opening. (After all, who wants to leave a unicorn?) So maybe you’ll have to chip away at those barriers and show the pharmacy and pharmacists that you are a unicorn. Communication and collaboration will be key here. And patience. If you are that unicorn technician, you should really try not to get discouraged because at the end of the day, if you get to work to your full scope and potential, the pharmacist also gets to work to theirs and this means that the patient gets even better care. We’re in this together, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. We need to trust each other. Respect each other. We’re a team. Partners in crime. Sarah-Lynn Dunlop is a pharmacy technician practising in community pharmacy in Collingwood, Ont., and a full-time faculty member at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont.