The AJP Podcast talks to the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s inaugural Aged Care Pharmacist of the Year – Neil Petrie, who has been working primarily in aged care, undertaking medication reviews for the past 25 years.

He has also owned his own community pharmacy in the past and semi-retired into aged care onsite pharmacy under the ACOP program.

With a father and uncle who were pharmacists, he says he remembers being about six or seven years old, “and going to the pharmacy after hours with my dad to make up an APC mixture, if I remember rightly, which was aspirin, phenacetin, and caffeine in it”.

“And I vividly remember my father saying, hold that needle and don’t drop it. And what did I do? I dropped it onto the footpath, didn’t I?

“So pharmacy’s been in my blood for a long time and I did have my own pharmacy for about 13 years, but I realised I wanted to do something a little bit different and when I had my pharmacy, I started servicing some hostels at that point in time and I really enjoyed that work.”

Petrie was one of Australia’s first pharmacists accredited to conduct medication reviews in 1998 – and ever since, his motto has been change.

He says ACOP will only increase in time, and “highlights our impact on direct resident care, medication safety, the quality use of medicines, and really system-wide improvements to medication procedures. So it really showcases us as pharmacists as a valued integral part of the care team.”

This is also highlighted, he says, by the sheer need for pharmacists’ services; discussing the most common medication-related problems in aged care facilities, given the amount of polypharmacy – and more importantly, inappropriate polypharmacy – underway.

01:13 – Neil’s introduction to pharmacy

03:42 – Aged care: a changing environment

05:11 – RMMRs and lack of rural and remote support: a disillusioning moment

06:14 – The responsibility of promoting ACOP

07:39 – Over 30-plus years in the field, what has changed the most?

09:29 – “How one person within the organisation can change an organisation overnight”

10:40 – The most common medication-related problems in ACFs

11:46 – Beginning an antibiotic stewardship program

13:11 – Taking the workload off the nurses

15:09 – “We have to get to a point where society says wherever medication is involved in therapy, there’s a pharmacist involved.”

17:11 – Thoughts on deprescribing

18:36 – The role of interdisciplinary team-based care

20: 54 – “How do you approach educating both residents and their families about their medications?”

22:07 – Practical strategies

23: 58 – “Polypharmacy is challenging.”

25: 06 – Neil’s vision for the future

29:26 – How can technology help?

32:18 – What advice would you give young pharmacists?

42:07 – A passion for antimicrobial use

You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.

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