If you want to work as a pharmacist or open your own pharmacy, we will look at vaccination training options in this post. This is a big part of pharmacies in 2023 after recent events.
Pharmacist vaccination training is something that every pharmacy manager should consider offering to their staff. It may have been offered as part of their health training at the likes of a reputable university. While many pharmacy managers are worried about the initial cost of setting up a vaccination service, it could be that you are also missing out on a great revenue stream for your pharmacy.
It is thought that only a small percentage of pharmacies offer travel vaccination – usually the high-street brand ones. Travel vaccination, however, offers diversification from the local competition who may not be offering such a service to the local community.
So many people far prefer local amenities to having to travel to get a particular service. High numbers of individuals and families are now holidaying in more far-flung parts of the world. Therefore, there will be potential customers living close to your pharmacy who would appreciate being able to get their travel vaccinations without having to disrupt their routine too much to do so.
Clever marketing of your pharmacy to customers who come through the door is also important. For example, during holiday periods you should be sure to remind customers coming through the door that you offer travel vaccinations.
If you look to also offer flu vaccinations through the government-sponsored scheme, this is also a great way to raise the profile of your travel vaccination service. But before you think of offering such a service, you need to make sure that you have staff who are trained to be able to provide immunization and vaccine injections. To meet mandatory and good practice guidelines, all staff should be provided with face-to-face vaccination training, as well as medical training in basic life support.
Pharmacist Flu Vaccine Training Performed Regularly Prevents Errors
Pharmacist flu vaccine training is mandatory for pharmacists looking to offer vaccinations. This should be updated every two years with face-to-face training. But what about the two-year period between these training sessions? During this intervening period, it is common for errors to slip into a pharmacist’s work.
Despite pharmacists receiving all the required medical training to provide a competent vaccination service, procedure becomes less stringent when training is not as common. Mistakes can be made, lapses in concentration happen, shortcuts are taken – because of this, drug prescription errors become more likely. Issues involving storage and handling of vaccines can happen more often that they should.
This can have serious consequences such as loss of money on spoiled vaccinations; negative publicity and/or word-of-mouth feedback; and, crucially, patients may get seriously ill as a result of not being properly vaccinated from the flu. Administration of the vaccine also has its own set of errors – such as usage of expired vaccine, incorrect dosages, improper placement of an injection or using the wrong vaccine or diluent.
Even health documentation can be filled with errors – such as not recording all information required or recording incorrect information. If you’re worried that your staff are full of holes – don’t be! It is unlikely that all your staff will be doing everything wrong. However, it is abundantly clear that regularly scheduled flu vaccination training can help negate these costly errors. If you are running a pharmacy that is offering flu vaccinations, it is your responsibility to ensure that your staff are delivering a high standard of service.
Training Can Help You Keep On Top Of Compliance
In any profession, healthcare or otherwise, it is important to keep on top of compliance and regulations. As legislation and the organisational structures of commercial pharmacies shift, compliance remains an important part of the way you do business. This not only applies to ensuring that regular medical training is performed by staff members, but compliance – when combined with training – helps safeguard the reputation of your practice, clinic or pharmacy. After all, if staff members have received poor or irregular training, they may be a vaccination injection away from bad publicity due to poor storage, hygiene, procedures and administration of injections.
Regular vaccination training in such an environment helps to develop a culture of compliance. With training being given so regularly, all of your staff members will come to appreciate the importance of not cutting corners and always remaining vigilant in their vaccination duties with patients. Creating such a culture within your workplace and wider organisation is not necessarily an easy task, but it is possible to enact these changes around you.
