More than 330 students participated in the Intraprofessional Exploration: Pharmacy & Pharmacy Technician Programs event that had participation from learners enrolled in Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technician programs at Humber and the University of Waterloo as well as Centennial, Conestoga, Fleming, Georgian, Lambton, Niagara and Sheridan colleges.
Sandra Gerges, program coordinator and professor with the Pharmacy Technician program, said pharmacists and pharmacy technicians collaborate closely in professional practice, but pre-licensing education often lacks opportunities for meaningful interprofessional interaction. This is primarily due to logistical constraints.
Gerges said the event was a valuable opportunity for learners from both professions to engage with one another, fostering role clarity and enhancing team dynamics to better prepare them for effective intraprofessional collaboration in future practice. By the end of the event, participants were able to demonstrate role clarification by recognizing and respecting the diversity of other professions; communicate in a manner that ensures equal representation, demonstrate trust and maintain mutual respect during intraprofessional conflict and decision making; and provide examples of connections across multiple systems when explaining the need for competence in intraprofessional collaboration.
"The Pharmacy student I was with had great questions about my program and wanted to know more about our curriculum - for example, did we learn about pharmacology," said Ong. "I think the Pharmacy students have a much better understanding of what the Pharmacy Technician students are learning and what they are capable of following this event."
Ong said there were opportunities throughout the day for the two groups of students to work closely together, replicating how they might be working once they graduate and are working in the field. Ong said the experience reinforced what they've been learning in class and how pharmacy technicians are trained to complete work - such as final product checks on prescriptions - that free up the pharmacists to focus on other duties.
"It was great to meet people we could be working with in the future," said Ong.
Gerges said the two professions will work extremely closely together but, during their post-secondary studies, don't have an event that has them learning together until this. One of the biggest benefactors of this unique opportunity will be the patients.
"The students are learning how to work together to optimize patient care and ensuring that everyone is working at their full scope of practice," she said.
Gerges added that the focus of the event was collaboration - working together, dealing with conflict and discovering what are the most important aspects of high-performing teams.
"My hope is that the students left understanding that in this industry we need to work together and that everyone has a role to play in patient care and that nobody's role is more important than others," said Gerges.
Ong, who's set to graduate and has already found a part-time job at a pharmacy for the summer after working there as part of her work-integrated learning, said the entire experience was quite valuable and helped prepare her for the realities of her future career.
"Being able to learn about the curriculums of other universities and colleges was helpful and it was interesting to see what was common between programs and what was different," said Ong.
Find out more by visiting the Pharmacy Technician website.
