Dynamic leadership and a flexible approach to role delegation are vital to achieving skill mix optimisation in community pharmacy, according to a new report from Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK).

The research, which was conducted by Professor Alison Bullock at the University of Cardiff, aimed to identify barriers and enablers to effective delegation within pharmacies and make recommendations for optimising the skill mix.

The study concluded that strong leadership is necessary to ensure that staff feel valued and take pride in their work so that they are able to expand their roles and take on greater responsibilities. The researchers advise pharmacists to optimise skill mixes by ensuring that different tasks can be performed by more than one team member and considering a range of factors besides qualifications when selecting staff members for specific roles.

Another recommendation was to use people in the right role for the task at hand, with consideration given to all members of the team and not just those with the most qualifications.

The researchers called for more research into different models of role delegation, including an investigation into the use of learning sets or a 'communities of practice' model.