Evaluate pharmacy technician in warfarin counselling

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Evaluating the role of the hospital pharmacy technician in providing patient counselling on warfarin

• IRAS ID

  170323

• Contact name

  Fiona Rennie

• Contact email

  fiona.rennie@luht.scot.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  NHS Lothian

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 8 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Warfarin is a commonly prescribed anticoagulant used to treat and prevent blood clots. Patients on warfarin are at risk of experiencing serious or life-threatening bleeding, and need to be aware of the risks and how to manage these when they are started on this treatment. Diet, alcohol and changes to other medicines can affect warfarin and lead to poor anticoagulant control and increased risks.
  National safety organisations have produced information to help patients understand the risks, but there is evidence that written information alone is not sufficient and patients benefit from verbal information in addition to this. Improvement in patient knowledge can lead to an improved compliance with the recommended lifestyle and monitoring requirements for warfarin. Hospital pharmacists routinely provide this information as part of their pharmaceutical care of the patient, and other studies have shown doctors and nurses can also effectively improve patient knowledge about warfarin. Pharmacists in hospital have many complex patients to provide care to and are supported in these activities by pharmacy technicians. Delivering this service to all hospital patients is resource intensive for a relatively small team of clinical pharmacists, and there is a need to review the skill mix within the pharmacy team to ensure the best care for patients. Pharmacy technicians deliver limited patient counselling locally and nationally however there are few published studies which describe the role of the pharmacy technician in counselling patients. This study aims to demonstrate that pharmacy technicians are able to improve the knowledge of patients on warfarin to the same extent as pharmacists. Patients will be asked to perform a short knowledge questionnaire before and after education from a pharmacy technician or pharmacist. Outcomes will be compared to understand whether a similar improvement in knowledge can be demonstrated.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/EM/0025

• Date of REC Opinion

  8 Jan 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion