The AJP Podcast

Director of pharmacy at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne Professor Michael Dooley, who is chair of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s new Hospital Pharmacy Practice Community of Specialty Interest, spoke to AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh about supporting hospital and other pharmacists through their growing challenges, the importance of understanding each other, and why the PSA leadership group was formed.

It’s vital that pharmacists understand each other – and in turn, for different practitioners to widen their understanding, he says.

“I think one of the most important things is having and understanding what everyone else does, what everyone else’s role is,” says Dooley.

“I think we learn more, we often assume a lot about others and we don’t always understand their challenges or even their expertise as pharmacists, we often think that others don’t understand what we know and what we do.

“And I think that’s probably right. We might not know exactly what a GP does, or we might not know the challenges associated with nurses who work in different settings. We have assumptions.

“I think the first thing is understanding what we do, but also understanding what others do.

“What are their expertise, what are their challenges? And by understanding that we can then be able to collaborate where we can share our expertise and we can fill gaps.”

Dooley says that all practitioners, whether an individual pharmacist or a nurse, suffer from “the same degrees of isolation”.

“So I think understanding within pharmacy and what pharmacists do in different settings is probably the first place.

“People often working in hospitals don’t necessarily understand the challenges associated with someone doing reviews by themselves.

“As an isolated pharmacist, a community pharmacist may not necessarily fully understand the challenges associated with working in a hospital.

“So I think breaking down some of those barriers where people can share their experiences, understand their expertise of others, and understand that commonality of the challenges is a really good place to start.

“And I think then I’ve noticed when working with medical staff, working with nursing staff, I probably learn learning more about what they do.”

Highlights include:

02.38: What are the key challenges facing the hospital sector, such as transitions of care?

07.17: Why Dooley took on the role as chair of the PSA leadership group – and more about the experts on its panel

13.00: What does the PSA leadership group hope to achieve?

15.27: Why it important to represent all areas of pharmacy practice?

18.07: Pharmacists working across all sectors – and the importance of collaboration

21:00: What is needed to support pharmacists in diverse roles?

23.33: Why should pharmacists join the CSI?

25.58: Hopes for the CSI’s next 12 months

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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AJP podcast host Carlene McMaugh speaks to co-founder and director of Locumate Kavita Nadan about how the locum role has changed since the app was launched in 2022.

Nadan, who is also the managing partner in her own pharmacy in Victoria, says that “The quickest shift we filled on our platform an urgent shift where a locum had cancelled—I think an hour before their shift—was like 30 seconds, because the people are ready to work and willing to get jobs.”

This means that “bizarre” rates of $110 an hour have dropped since, and “pharmacies are a lot more willing to offer feedback as well for locums, and locums accepting that as well”.

“[W]hat we’re seeing is locums are becoming a lot more, I guess, vigilant about their role and their impact of their work in the industry as well,” Nadan says.

“Before typically the mindset of locum pharmacists would be, ‘I go in, I do my job and I leave now,’ that’s changed a lot more where they try and actually go in and become a little bit part of that ecosystem of the pharmacy and get to know the people.

“And we are starting to see really, really good behaviours come out as a result of that.”

00.54: How the grueling experience of managing a pharmacy during the Covid crisis in 2022 sparked the idea of the Locumate app: “Oh my gosh, seriously getting locums into my pharmacies is such a archaic manual process. Surely there’s a better way to do this.”

06.17: A new function for the app launches

07.53: How has the locum market changed since 2022?

10.22: Do pharmacies need to pay for travel?

12.14: How can a locum stand out in the current market?

14.44: What should new graduates and overseas pharmacists expect when they begin locuming?

18.17: The importance of communication – and what services locums provide: “I feel like there has to be this greater ability for pharmacists to just be aware of what they’re actually accepting.”

21.15: What can employers expect?

23.32: How have new innovations such as medicinal cannabis and vaping changed the locuming environment?

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh discusses the expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice with the University of Newcastle’s Dr Sarah Dineen-Griffin, who is leading the NSW pharmacy trials. 

Since the start of the NSW trials pharmacies across the state – and the ACT – have provided more than 20,000, with the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) becoming part of pharmacists’ permanent practice in the two jurisdictions, Dineen-Griffin noted (0 minutes 56). 

She said that more than 18,000 consultations were conducted by pharmacists as part of the UTI trial, with 2000 occasions of service recorded for the resupply of oral contraceptives, and a further 1000 as part of the dermatology trial.  

“The number of consultations was really influenced by the scope of the authority regarding both age and other eligibility criteria,” she said (1:57). 

“With regards to the dermatology trial, we are now focused on pharmacists managing select conditions… and this trial is really aiming to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of pharmacist-led management of these conditions overall.” 

Other topics discussed include: 

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Speaking with Carlene McMaugh the host of the AJP Podcast, Chris Brooker reflects on the biggest stories of the last 12 months and discusses the potential key issues facing the pharmacy sector in 2025. 

Tensions between the community pharmacy sector and the federal government were at a high at the start of 2024, following the introduction of 60-day dispensing in September 2023 (1 min 04). 

Despite the hostile relationship between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the government, Brooker noted that there were several successes for the profession, with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia securing a “very good” deal in the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (2:14), while the profession’s scope of practice continued to expand. 

The implementation of the National Immunisation Program Vaccination in Pharmacy (NIPVIP) program in January was another ‘win’ for the sector and the community, despite dire warnings from medical groups (3:09). 

Other topics discussed include: 

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Speaking with AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh, Simpson says that “Whilst it’s a hot topic now, it isn’t new” – “it’s one of those things that actually, you can trace it back a long way past. You can walk backwards in those footsteps.”

And South Australia is leading the way, he says.

“So if you attend South Australian hospital emergency departments, your pharmacist might be writing the medication chart and the doctor’s signatory is not necessary on that because the pharmacist has actually been credentialed to chart those medicines.

“There’s a lot of huge amount of value and changes happen in the autonomous prescribing space too.

“I think it’s really worth looking at what that partnered prescribing process delivers because that’s not a limited formulary. That’s everything from lithium to warfarin to beta blockers to whatever that patient needs…

“Scope of practice and top of scope have [been] some of the real buzzwords of the year, but whether it’s community hospital or whatever sitting, we’re all looking to get the most out of our practitioners and I think with that decade long experience of those collaborative models from hospital-based settings, those are now rippling out to the entire healthcare sector.”

More highlights include:

00.52: “It’s been a big year, hasn’t it?” Simpson talks about the mainstreaming of once cutting-edge concepts in pharmacy – plus the other big stories of 2024

06.24: Why collaborative prescribing delivers “so much bang for buck”

08.10: What were pharmacists’ biggest concerns in 2024?

12.17: What were 2024’s biggest challenges?

16.16: What’s ahead for 2025?

19.15: Simpson and AdPha’s proudest moments in 2024

26.24: Was 2024 what you expected?

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Speaking with AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh, Sim described 2024 as a year of two halves. 

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) president noted that while there were a number of key successes for the pharmacy profession over the last 12 months, the first half of the year was an uncertain time for pharmacists (1 min 48).

However, she said the signing of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) and the PSA’s Strategic Agreement on Professional Pharmacist Practice, gave the profession cause of optimism in recent months. 

Topics discussed include: 

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha’s) national president, Tom Simpson, and vice president, Kate O’Hara, chat with AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh about a challenging year – from the current fluid shortages to changes to scope.

They begin with the change of identity for AdPha, which O’Hara says will hopefully useful to highlight the work that its members actually do… both in and out of hospitals.

People in governance roles in the organisation get a lot of requests for advocacy, she tells McMaugh – “And when we try and raise our voices or get in the room, people are like, ‘oh, well you just do hospital’.

“And it’s sometimes hard to complete the work that our members are asking us to do because of the different locations and the different roles that they practice in.

“And it’s hoped by having a name that’s a little bit wider that it’ll be easier for people to say, okay, this isn’t just about hospitals, and we can do that work that members are asking us to do,” she explains.

Meanwhile Simpson talks about the many other changes which took place over the year.

“[M]edication shortages and currently the fluid shortages are very much top of mind for the kinds of challenges that we’re all dealing with,” he says. “I think I looked at the TGA website and there was something like 500 shortages just the other day…

“It has been a year of opportunity, I think, as well. We’ve got state and federal governments very focused on the value that pharmacists can deliver to the health system in a way like we’ve never had before, and a willingness to remove some of those barriers to top of scope practice.

“So I think for us, it’s been a year of really driving that conversation forward and advocating for the kinds of practices that we know we can deliver in a range of care settings that make the best use of our expertise.”

Podcast highlights:

00.58: Why was the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia’s identity changed to Advanced Pharmacy Australia?

04.11: ‘A spectrum of responses’ – how members reacted

06.46: What are AdPha’s goals – and do they differ from SHPA’s?

10.30: What pharmacists don’t know about AdPha

13.39: What does the future look like?

14.37: The challenges and successes of 2024 – ‘It’s been an interesting year’

21.41: A look at 2025

23.22: Kate O’Hara reports on the FIP conference in Cape Town

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

In this episode of the AJP podcast, Carlene McMaugh talks to Adam Livori about his experiences in differing areas of pharmacy, and how he has gone about ‘pivoting’ between different roles.

Among the topics covered are:

Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

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.

ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh speaks with Dr Jenny Gowan, an industry stalwart and long-time AJP contributor who was honoured with the Member of the Order of Australia earlier this year.

“Try and keep yourself focused, and it’s really good to be multi-skilled and multidisciplinary,” Gowan advises, before discussing the Aged Care Onsite Pharmacist role and what those who are about to test its waters need to know.

“I think it’s really important that people who are venturing into this field know a little bit about what is currently going on and where the transition is going,” Gowan says.

“So where the opportunities are and where the barriers are.”

Noting that after a GP receives a pharmacist’s report and develops a plan, “which takes them a very little time in comparison to the time it takes us and guess what? They get paid more than us, but that’s a bone of contention,” Gowan explains that turnover in aged care can be fast.

“We don’t have time to do as many as we’d like because we find the turnover in the nursing homes is fast. There’s a lot of people that move on because it’s their final resting place, and we’ve really got about a 25% change at least every year if not more.”

And the problem isn’t lack of interest, or lack of training. Gowan explains what the main limitation is with ACOP, and how she manages it.

Also:

09.32: How does one get involved in aged care pharmacy?

12.52: The process of training

14.06: Why consider a role in aged care?

16.05: The future of the aged care role

26.23: How does this align with scope of practice?

29.05: Gowan’s advice for pharmacists on aged care

32:02: Aged care and pay

37:17: Understanding patients

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

In this podcast, Kylie Neville, PDL professional officer, is joined by two highly experienced industry leaders in pharmaceutical compounding: Patricia Ullmann and Marina Holt.

They delve into topics relating to risk awareness and risk management in compounding of medicines. The aim is to highlight areas where practitioners can improve safety and reduce unwanted outcomes through greater focus on good compounding practices.

Among the topics covered:

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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