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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