Co-op: Demonstration of Skills
Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacy Assistant- Zainab Saherawala
Date and Time: May 13th, 2016 or May 20th, 2016 at 8am
Descriptions of Activities
Filling a Prescription:
The purpose of a Pharmacy is to dispense and sell pharmaceutical drugs. For many types of medications, a prescription is required from a doctor and is filled by a pharmacy technician before it is delivered to a customer. Filling a prescription involves a particular process and a set of skills. It incorporates communication skills when speaking to customers, technical skills when operating the HealthWatch System and observational skills when filling the medication. I will demonstrate and explain how steps are taken to ensure a prescription is processed correctly and the stations that a prescription goes through.
To ensure that a Pharmacy is functioning correctly and to maintain organization, reports are printed on a daily basis. These reports aid in the management of costs, orders and transactions. Reports include narcotic sales reports, adjusted sales reports and cancelled sales reports. Alongside with printing reports, hardcopies and logs also have to be filed in chronological order. By filing hardcopies, the pharmacy can always have a record of transactions if there are any issues in the future. I will demonstrate and explain the reports that are required to be printed and where they must be stored.
Rationale
I have chosen to show you how to fill a prescription and printing and filing reports because these are two tasks that are essential in the daily routines of a pharmacy technician. It is important that a prescription is filled correctly as it is an important function of the business, each station requires time and focus to minimize errors and complications. Since Shoppers Drug Mart is a very busy pharmacy and receives over 100 prescriptions a day, efficiency is also a big part of the process to make the business faster and satisfy customers. I have also chosen to demonstrate how reports are printed, analyzed and filed because it is part of my daily routine as a co-op student and is a big part of the functioning of the Pharmacy.
Details of the Activities
Filling a Prescription:
- Greet Customer, and enter patient information if he/she are new, this is the entry station
- After it is processed, take the papers and labels from the printer and proceed to the filling station
- Look for the drugs on the prescription according to the classification system (generic or brand name)
- Scan the medications, prescriptions and the bar code on the computer.
- Fold all the Healthwatch papers and place the documents in the appropriate basket (red, blue or white)
- Check the expiry date on the drug, and write it down on the prescription.
- Check DIN number of drugs before filling to verify
- Count pills using the pill counter, or weigh if required in grams of the drug that is needed (for mixtures and creams)
- Put the pills in a bottle, label the bottle and stick barcode on the bag
- Slide the basket down for the pharmacist to double check and sign off
- After the pharmacist has verified the prescription, place medication in outbox or buzz patient
- Call pharmacist for counselling if required and process transaction
DIN numbers can be found at the top corners of medications
Baskets represent the urgency of prescriptions at the pharmacy, red is urgent, blue is non-urgent and white is delivery
Medications are arranged in alphabetical classifications as well as brand named and generic types
- Log on to HealthWatch system and MMS
- Print Inventory Adjustment Report and RX holding tank report from MMS
- Change dates to the day before and print Narcotics report, Prescription Sales, Volume and Transactions, RSS Extract Audit, Variance Management Reports
- Put Prescription Sales, RSS Extract Audit and Accumulated Totals in Elyas' outbox
- Find and Check off Narcotics hardcopies on the report
- File Hardcopies in chronological order
Required Materials:
- Prescription
- Basket (red for urgent, blue for non urgent, white for delivery)
- Pill counter (machine or manually)
- Bottles
- Bottle labels
- Pen
Special Instructions for Co-op Teacher: None
Approved Date and Time: