Techs win support as immunizers

Although only four provinces currently permit pharmacy technicians to administer COVID-19 vaccines—and only Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have amended legislation to support the administration of all “pharmacist eligible” vaccines—it is likely just a matter of time before other jurisdictions follow suit, given the benefits for pharmacists, technicians and, ultimately, patients. Even in those provinces where pharmacy technicians are not authorized to administer vaccines, with training they can fulfill traditional vaccine support roles such as collecting information, billing, promotion and marketing, record-keeping, managing drug inventory, documentation, and calling patients to book appointments. With pharmacists administering an increasing number of doses of vaccines — and with flu season on the horizon — pharmacy technicians can significantly ease the burden on pharmacists. Speaking at the recent Pharmacy U for Pharmacy Technicians, Dr. Mathew DeMarco from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo discussed a recent scoping review that he and his colleagues have conducted of the role of pharmacy technicians in vaccination services. DeMarco cited five studies that define the pharmacy technician vaccine administration role: Vaccine handling, storage and disposal using sharps containers Choosing the correct needle and syringe Drawing up the vaccine for injection Finding injection sites, aseptic technique and vaccine administration Required documentation and reporting for immunizations Monitoring for adverse events and addressing emergency situations DeMarco noted that of the steps involved in administering a vaccine, authorized pharmacy technicians are permitted to perform infection prevention, vaccine preparation and vaccine administration. However, the pharmacist must perform the roles of assessment, education and obtaining informed consent, ensuring the patient understands the information presented, and documenting the consent. Technicians may conduct post-vaccination counselling and observation but must immediately consult with the pharmacist if an adverse event occurs. “The entire process of injecting COVID-19 vaccine is a collaborative process between the pharmacist and pharmacy technician,” said DeMarco. Pharmacist support for techs In a case of “seeing is believing,” studies showed that pharmacists who have had experience with supervising an immunization-trained pharmacy technician said they would recommend the role to others. “Pharmacist support was an important success factor and was established shortly after observation of the pharmacy technician administering vaccines,” noted DeMarco. The studies also found that trained pharmacy technicians were empowered by the role and this had a positive impact on pharmacy morale. In the future, there may be a greater role for technicians to play in the screening process. Several studies from the U.S. and one from Canada characterized pharmacy technicians’ involvement in screening patients for eligibility. The techs collected information using electronic medical records as they pertained to patient age as well as chronic health conditions that would make patients eligible for one of several types of vaccines. “Pharmacies may wish to consider enacting pharmacy technician screening activities in jurisdictions where the pharmacy technician can also take on a role in vaccine administration to provide workflow balance while still providing benefits to the patient,” said DeMarco. The scoping review “supports pharmacy technician roles for vaccine screening, administration and traditional support roles for vaccination services,” said DeMarco. “It is both urgent and important to utilize all pharmacy staff in the most leverageable community pharmacy model in efforts of meeting current patient vaccine-related needs.” The studies “provided evidence for benefit related to the effective deployment of pharmacy technicians in delivering vaccination services,” DeMarco concluded. “Pharmacists and technicians both advocated for technician vaccine administration roles due to the potential benefits of pharmacy workflow efficiencies, pharmacist clinical time, and technician job satisfaction.” In response to a question from the audience about whether vaccine administration should be part of the entry-level competencies, DeMarco said, “We’re not quite there in Canada yet and it will likely take some time to diffuse across the profession in terms of comfort.” Nonetheless, he added, “I do think that will be where we end up.”

Techs win support as immunizers

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics