All discussion of Pharmacist employee benefits aside, a successful pharmacy team extends to all employees and departments of a pharmacy. Segregation whether by physical location or by work place culture, is a hindrance to the successful implementation of your practice. We are all on the team of providing “optimal drug therapy outcomes for Canadians through patient-centered care”.
To understand the importance of “team” to the success of your scope of practice, you must first define the goals of your practice. If you wish to dispense medication within the scope of practice that includes more one on one consulting with the patient as well as more formal, structured collaboration with other health care professionals – I humbly suggest that you will need the support of a team. Your team has many jobs within the pharmacy, but their one job in common is the understanding of the availability and importance of your services to the health of your patients.
First you must educate and engage your team. This does involve a commitment to participate in full staff meetings on a regular basis to communicate new developments, re-enforce the importance of the service as well as indicate just how important your team is to the service’s success by defining their activities and goals. Departmental staff meetings can impact the exact method of staff’s engagement in the service. Remember to congratulate and thank your team for their commitment and success in accomplishing their goals
Beyond words, how does this translate into action? Everyone in your pharmacy needs to know what services are available and be able to recommend these services – even if this only involves passing on your “ticket” of professional services to clients expressing an interest. (See Connecting the Dots 1.1) A team member does not have to technically explain the benefits of a service but can refer the patient to the pharmacist. A team member can create a positive impact on the patient’s perception of your service simply by being helpful, making the service the standard of care in your pharmacy.
Your pharmacy has many clients seen daily by team members that are not patients of your pharmacy team. To ensure the successful education and possible referral of clients – making them your patients, ensure that your team is not divided by department, has an overall view of how to make the professional services successful and of course has the tools to support their efforts!
How are you ensuring your team is not a house divided? How can we promote a culture of a health centre within a space providing so many other services? Clarity of vision, shared expectations and regular communication – those are my DOTS.
2 Responses
I used to work at Scotiabank as a teller for a summer job a few years ago and we would have weekly “team huddles” to make sure that everyone was on the same page about different promotions, etc. In fact, they even used to have contests and small prizes for people who referred a certain number of clients the previous week for different bank services and products. I found that this was an effective way to keep employees motivated and feel like they were working together towards a common goal.
Do you think this huddle idea would work in a community pharmacy environment? If not, what other motivation tools do you use?
-Zenah (CPhA summer pharmacy student, 2011)
Susan Reply:
August 6th, 2011 at 6:00 am
Great Q- I do believe in daily/weekly, informal meetings to re-focus goals and strategies. I know that incentives can make a difference in some types of business models. What I have found is that incentives can divide a team. Example- I have been a preceptor to pharmacy students, had financial incentives given me by our group (not requested). I turned this money into a fund for fun team building experiences. After all I was not the only one interacting with the students, helping them learn about pharmacy in a community setting. For me to keep the money would have brought negative energy to the team – “What was my contribution worth?”. “Why am I not being recognized as a team member?”
Another example is of up-selling. This is tough to do at a check out, easier to do when working on the floor. Up selling in health care should be about helping clients understand the professional services available and connecting them to the service – whether this is a quick consult with a pharmacists on OTC’s or a more formalized minor ailment prescribing session with a pharmacist. This would be a tough area to put an incentive on – we ask our staff to not hesitate to involve a pharmacist, to engage the client and to understand their impact on extending our patient base. The incentive has been that the staff are valued team members, not just people who have non-dispensary jobs – the culture of the pharmacy changes in a very positive manner as we all work toward one goal.
In a pharmacy, too often the front store is segregated from the dispensary by the culture of that business. We need to open up our culture, make everyone a VALUED member of the team to ensure the success of our business. “Our” because we do have an investment in the success of a business owned by someone else. The immediate return is a job, perhaps a well paying job, and for me even more importantly are the opportunities created to have input in the professional structure and opportunities of my job.
Team – it does take work to build and work to maintain but is worth every moment as your job becomes so much more than just hours in a day! Susan