Communication problems for pharmacists beginning their careers in the UK include producing and comprehending accent, spoken fluency, syntax, slang vocabulary and expressions.
Regions where you may encounter challenging accents include:
West and South Yorkshire, Essex, Somerset, Birmingham (where the accent is known as Brummie), Leicestershire, Glasgow, Newcastle, South Wales and the Black Country (an area of the West Midlands including Wolverhampton, Dudley and Walsall).
One helpful tip for easing communcation problems – the gentle insertion of questions during the patient’s speech, which assumes control over the conversation. Redirecting the conversation to asking your own questions also allows you to enter the deduction pathway, making the diagnosis of the patient’s problem more effective and faster. Polite persuasion and appropriate intonation are also very helpful tools.
The difference in the formulary may appear daunting at first, perhaps even a demotivating factor, but after familiarising oneself with the names of the active substances, one happily discovers that almost all of the drugs are the same as those in Poland, differing only in proprietary names.
Sometimes there are only slight differences, such as Voltaren (Poland) and Voltarol (UK); in other cases, when these names differ significantly, you can use the description of the active substance – always listed on the packaging.
Drug names that sound or look similar are included in the LASA – (Look Alike Sound Alike medicines) protocol.
The most frequently confused pairs are:
Prednisolone vs Propranolol, Quetiapine vs Quinine, Amlodipine vs Amitriptiline, Allopurinol vs Atenolol, Carbamazepine vs Carbimazole
Typical British patient expectations and attitudes:
The average British patient is richer than the average Polish patient – pensioners travelling regularly to the Mediterranean and African countries are not uncommon. For this reason, among others, tropical vaccine clinics are common in the UK, as well as the service of monitoring the current requirements for malaria prevention – some pharmacies provide this type of service – pharmacist accreditation is required.
In most cases, the patients are co-operative and polite, but there are difficult individuals. Calmness and assertiveness are the best tools for dealing with such people.
The average Briton places great trust in the pharmacist. The British are concerned about their health and often ask for interactions.
In summary, the British patient – statistically richer, more optimistic, but sometimes also demanding. Whilst the patient’s interests are paramount, it is important to consider self-respect.
Key terms:
Responsible Pharmacist is a person appointed by the pharmacy owner as responsible for the sale and delivery of all medicines from a registered premises. The Responsible Pharmacist is accountable for the safe and effective running of a pharmacy, and such a facility cannot be opened or operated without him or her. Every day, a pharmacist who assumes the Responsible Pharmacist status must be present in a given pharmacy and is obliged by law to enter the relevant register.
Item – a pharmaceutical product (medicine, dressing, etc.) ordered on the prescription – irrespective of whether there is 1 tablet or 1000.
One prescription (an electronic prescription called an EPS or a manual one also called an FP10) may contain one or more pharmaceutical product(s), i.e. ‘item(s)’ (but usually no more than 5 items per prescription).
PMR – Patient Medication Record – a set of information (a patient’s prescription history) stored on a computer system, regarding a particular patient in a given pharmacy, including the history of drugs dispensed to him or her in the past until the present.
The drug dispensing process in the UK requires entering data from the currently used prescription to the patient’s record (i.e. the aforementioned ‘PMR’) and printing a sticker (known as ‘label’), which is later stuck on the drug package, signed and allowed to be verified by the pharmacist.
A dispenser is an individual who is actively involved in the preparation and dispensing of pharmaceutical products, including the management and handling of the Patient Medication Record (PMR), printing and affixing information labels and the first of two steps of drug verification.
You can become a dispenser after successfully completing the NVQ Level 2 course. A technician is a higher level in the pharmacy hierarchy in the UK. This is a person who has completed an NVQ Level 3 course and frequently takes over the management roles.
SOP – Standard Operating Procedures – is a set of procedures which define the appropriate actions in various situations by members of the pharmacy team and with which these people should be familiar. Every pharmacy in the UK has a folder listing these procedures.
Types of Community Pharmacies:
– Pharmacies adjacent to the GP surgeries, with a very high attendance of patients. These are the most frequented pharmacies
– High Street pharmacies, which are often combined with a beauty supply shop. In these facilities, patients are often the people who receive medicines while shopping; often tourists
– Local pharmacies in smaller towns – in these premises, patients are often associated with a given pharmacy for many years, because it is often the only facility of this type in close proximity to their place of residence, hence the relationship between the patient and the pharmacy staff is often very good
– Neighborhood pharmacies – similarly to the previous category – these are often those facilities to which patients belong for many years
– Pharmacies in supermarkets – the most difficult type for novice pharmacists, patients belonging to these facilities are statistically more demanding and less patient than in the above mentioned types of pharmacy
Pharmaceutical care in Great Britain
Examples of services available in pharmacies in England, Wales and Scotland (requiring training)
– Flu and COVID-19 vaccination services
– Travel vaccinations & health advice service (cholera vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, etc.)
– NMS – New Medicine Service – a service that checks the patient’s reaction to a new drug
– CPCS – Community Pharmacist Consultation Service – pharmaceutical prescriptions and consultations commissioned by other health care institutions in emergency situations
– Summary Care Record – access to a national patient record
– Hypertension Case-Finding Service – blood pressure check service and interview with the patient, potentially a referral to a doctor
– Cholesterol Testing Service – checking cholesterol levels
– DMS – Discharge Medicines Service – verification of the drugs after the patient’s discharge from hospital
Supplying of prescription drugs as part of pharmaceutical care:
– Treatment of impetigo (cream with fusidic acid 20 mg / g)
– Cellulitis, infections caused by insect bites (flucloxacillin 500mg)
– Emergency contraception (Levonorgestrel 1500 mcg or Uliprystal 30 mg)
– Bacterial conjunctivitis (Chloramphenicol 0.5% eye drops)
– Shingles, symptoms – rash (Acyclovir 800mg)
– Drugs for smoking cessation (Varenicline 500mg & 1g, nicotine patches)
– Vaginal candidiasis (Fluconazole 150mg)
– Cystitis (Nitrofurantoin 100mg, Trimethoprim 200mg)
Examples of services available in pharmacies in England, Wales and Scotland (not requiring training)
– Methadone and buprenorphine – supplying drugs to recovering addicts
– MDS – Monitored Dosage Systems – preparation of dosette boxes (special plastic trays divided into small boxes) for patients with medications separated by times of the day and days of the week
– Checking interactions at patient’s request
