Becoming a final accuracy checker

The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) Accuracy checking pharmacy technician (ACPT) programme provides pharmacy technicians with the knowledge required to be a safe final accuracy checker. It also aims to help you develop your leadership skills, so you can support the multidisciplinary team in your pharmacy. We spoke to Fiona Bealey and Meesha Taylor (pictured) about their experiences on the course and its impact on their pharmacy practice.

Congratulations on passing the course, Meesha! How is your new qualification impacting your current practice and that of your team?

MT: Thank you and thank you to CPPE for putting on and supporting candidates through this programme. We are a very busy pharmacy, so having another checker is helpful when managing and trying to keep up to date with the workload. I can also help the pharmacist by supporting and overseeing work colleagues whilst checking screened prescriptions for the waiting room dispensary if the pharmacist is called away. 

Fiona, do you have anything to add to this from your perspective as the pharmacist at the practice?

FB: Meesha now being a qualified ACT has massively helped the running of Shelley Pharmacy, and it is a huge help to me knowing that she can check items especially when I am very busy dealing with other queries and there are patients waiting. We already had some accuracy checkers in the branch, so I was already needing to clinically check the majority of prescriptions before they are processed, so this has not added any extra workload for me, only alleviated it.

Meesha, what were your biggest challenges while undertaking the course?

MT: I was doing this course during the pandemic when we were very short staffed, and our workload was huge. Hopefully, this extra pressure and the fact that there is only a small margin for error on the course means that I have learnt to manage a hectic working environment and continue to check prescriptions accurately.

Fiona, were there any challenges for you or the larger team while Meesha was studying? 

FB: The extra time we had to allow for Meesha to check items and then me to double check her work as well as the time invigilating her final assessment.

Meesha, do you plan to take on any further training or different roles? If so, can you tell us a little more about this?

MT: I am hoping to become more involved and more ‘hands on’ with patients’ health and medications through the services we give. I have, therefore, studied all the necessary information to do with the Discharge Medicines Service and the Hypertension Case-finding Service.

Fiona, do you think other practices should encourage pharmacy technicians to undertake the ACPT programme?

FB: Absolutely. The CPPE programme is particularly good because it pays close attention to checks and warning labels, and learners are assessed on these important aspects.