Assist pharmacy customers with medicines within your scope

What is going on

It is Friday afternoon at the Marketplace Community Pharmacy. Amanda Okafor is dispensing with a queue of scripts and Liam O'Callaghan is preparing the aged care delivery. Last week a customer complained that she was not asked her grandchild's age when she enquired about a cough medicine, and last Friday a customer refused a pharmacist only medicine became abusive. Today customers will ask about a cough and cold product for a child, an anti-inflammatory for a customer who mentions he takes blood thinners, a pharmacist only medicine for a sleep problem, and vitamins for a pregnant customer. The protocol cards are at the counter.

Your brief

Serve each customer courteously, work through the protocol questions for every medicine enquiry, supply only within the pharmacy assistant's scope, refer to the pharmacist whenever the policy requires, protect privacy and record any enquiry that needs follow-up in the customer feedback register.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the supply of pharmacy medicines and pharmacist only medicines policy and the customer service and respectful behaviour policy, and summarise what a pharmacy assistant can and cannot do.
• For the cough and cold enquiry, ask who the medicine is for, the child's age, symptoms and duration, and refer to the pharmacist because the request involves a child, recording the referral.
• For the anti-inflammatory enquiry, apply the protocol questions about other medicines, identify the blood thinner as a reason to refer, and hand over to the pharmacist with a clear summary.
• For the pharmacist only medicine request, explain that the pharmacist must speak with the customer, invite them to the private counselling area and support the pharmacist's decision without offering the product elsewhere.
• Assist the pregnant customer with the vitamin range within the protocol, checking the product label and referring to the pharmacist for any question about dosage or other medicines.
• Apply infection control when a customer asks for a blood pressure check, using hand hygiene and cleaning the cuff and consultation room between clients.
• Record the referral outcomes and any customer who needs follow-up in the customer feedback register, and update the stock register status for the ibuprofen and test strips after the afternoon's sales.
• Write a short reflection on how you would respond if a customer became aggressive after a refusal, using the respectful behaviour steps.

What someone in this role would produce

• Protocol question records for the four enquiries with the referral decision
• Customer feedback register entries for any follow-up
• Stock register updates for the pharmacy lines
• Reflection on the respectful behaviour steps