Training your team and ensuring everyone’s knowledge is up-to-date are important CPD triggers for you. We suggest that you get the team together for a training session based on the activities below and discuss the various ways in which you can offer customers and patients added care in this category. 

Subject: Older people’s health

This Train Your Team checklist provides support and information to run a team training session on older people's health. This content can also be used for your own CPD.

Reflection

• Do we participate in an e-referral scheme for post-discharge patients?
• What would we have to put in place in the pharmacy to use such a scheme?
• Could we work with care homes to provide a post-discharge service?
• How can we help to prevent hospital admissions and re-admissions?
• What are the things we should look out for in patients who have recently been discharged from hospital?
• Are we vigilant in changing PMRs when medication has been altered?
• Is our pharmacy ‘older person friendly’?

Training checklist

Ensure your support staff understand the following key points:
• The importance of identifying patients who have been discharged from hospital
• How patients (and their carers) may be confused about their medication when they leave hospital
• The importance of a healthy balanced diet and physical activity
• How older people can reduce their risk of falls
• The importance of regular eye tests
• When to refer to the pharmacist.

Action. I will ensure that:

• We re-assess our communication skills with all older people and their carers using our pharmacy
• We consider using a post-discharge e-referral scheme
• We think about how we can use all our pharmacy services to help older people who have been discharged from hospital
• My pharmacy assistants are able to meet the points in this training checklist.

Practice points

• Asking about medication is part of the 2WHAM questions you ask customers. Which medications may cause urinary incontinence? nhs.uk/Conditions/Incontinence-urinary/Pages/Causes.aspx