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Literacy profiles in pharmacy. Workbase Health Literacy Conference May 2012. The role of a community pharmacist. Medicines expert. Highly trained health professional. Essential role in dispensing prescription medicines. Professional advice on medicines and health conditions.
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Literacy profiles in pharmacy Workbase Health Literacy Conference May 2012 DEDICATED TO MEMBER PHARMACIES
The role of a community pharmacist • Medicines expert. • Highly trained health professional. • Essential role in dispensing prescription medicines. • Professional advice on medicines and health conditions. • Professional health and lifestyle advice. • Diagnosis and triage service. • Highly accessible throughout New Zealand.
The role of the Pharmacy Guild • A membership organisation representing community pharmacy owners. • Over 670 member pharmacies. • Advocacy, benefits and services for members. • Participates in discussions that shape the future of pharmacy. • Promotes professionalism in community pharmacy. • Provides tools for members to run a successful business.
Pharmacy Industry Training Organisation • One of 33 ITOs. • Three mandated roles determined by TEC: • Managing training Responsible for arranging and monitoring training and assessing trainees. • Leadership Provide leadership on skill and training needs, including the development of strategic training plans to assist industry. • Standards setting Responsible for setting the skill standards for the industries for which it has recognised coverage.
Why literacy • One of the Tertiary Education Strategies (TES) priorities for ITOs is to increase literacy, language and numeracy skills in the workplace. • ITOs have been supported through TEC funding to embed literacy and numeracy into training. • Now considered part of normal ITO activity.
PITO – what we did • Developed a Literacy Skills Strategy. • Partnered with Workbase in 2010 to carry out a range of activities identified in the strategy. • Developed literacy profiles for pharmacy technicians and assistants. • Aligned all training and assessment material to reflect the literacy requirements identified in the profiles. • Created new assessment templates and made other changes to remove barriers for participation and completion.
Pharmacy Guild actions • Following publication of the PITO profiles, the Pharmacy Guild identified a need for a pharmacist profile to be developed. • The Guild partnered with Workbase in 2011 to develop the pharmacist profile. • Identified the value of the profiles as an HR tool for staff. • Role/job descriptions. • Task evaluation. • Role requirements. • Career information and counselling.
During the development, the Guild realised the potential was far greater. • Literacy analysis across all functions. • Raising awareness of health literacy issues. • Tool to modify approaches to dealing with patients and customers. • A tool that could be applied in many ways.
Literacy profiles • The profiles were developed by Workbase experts. They spent time with each staff member doing their day to day roles. • Extensive use of conversations, questioning and observation. • Two different documents were created: • Literacy on the job. This describes the main literacy and numeracy tasks in various jobs and the frequency that each task is carried out. • Literacy profiles. An in-depth description of the literacy tasks and the literacy skills needed to complete them.
Includes: • reading • writing • speaking and listening • numeracy • critical thinking.
Questions? Thank you PHARMACY HOUSE 124 Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011 P O Box 27139, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Ph (04) 802 8200 Fax (04) 384 8085 www.pgnz.org.nz