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Should dispensing disappear for #pharmacists? In the last 20 years, we've seen technician roles expanded to take over some dispensing roles (like tech check tech policies). I can foresee a future where technicians have advanced tech roles requiring more education to cover more dispensing responsibilities. What I'm most concerned about is how pharmacists will be responsible for these changes. Doctors are responsible for PAs and NPs prescribing. So will pharmacists be responsible for dispensing for an advanced technician role? I'd love to hear what you think about this evolution of workload demands and the need for more, and higher paid, technicians.
Let's be honest - the money is still in the dispensed product, not in all of these nice to have "consulting" deliverables. Until that changes, the pharmacist is going to be dispensing, or have oversight of the dispensing. It would take a lot of trust for me to put my name on something I didn't have control over - I am guessing most pharmacists feel that way. If the advanced technicians share in the liability if something goes wrong, maybe that gets us part of the way there.
Pharmacists MUST stop dispensing. Our role is still way too tied to a physical product. We can't ever break through to charge for our time and be used for our knowledge if we are tied to dispensing. I know, it is a big shift, but seriously, other people + technology can put pills in bottles and verify them. A pharmacists power comes in counseling & working with the rest of the healthcare team!
I think it’s a great idea as it will allow the pharmacists to utilize their full knowledge of pharmacy to practice patient care rather than being responsible for technical things in a dispensing role.
If they are being given more responsibilities than they should be paid more. Pharmacists should focus on things that only pharmacists can do and they should be paid more too.
Whether it is technician expanded roles....or pharmacist involved with dispensing, each entity is tied to the product. If we do not get adequate reimbursement for the product, we will all be without a job.
Cool. I’ve always loved being a pharmacist. Jobs change but the profession is the profession.
Pharmacist/Writer/Advocate
5moFor technicians to take over the dispensing role, their entire career needs to shift, drastically. In many states, techs are still trained on the job & only a high school diploma or GED is needed. Often, they are given no formal pharmacy training at all. A comprehensive training program at a collegiate level would be the minimum, perhaps an associates degree, along with on the job training by pharmacists. There would need to be sharing of legal consequences for errors as well. Additionally, their pay needs to increase to compensate for increased level of training & responsibility involved.