Documenting the evolution of the relationship between the pharmacy support workforce and pharmacists to support patient care

Abstract

Since 2009 there has been a focus on the relationship between pharmacy technicians, pharmacy support workforce cadres and pharmacists in the literature. 2009-2011 saw a framework of role evolution develop, with publications from 2012 to 2015 documenting further maturity in the development of practice models for improved patient care and optimal use of personnel. The dominant narrative in the published academic literature has been made by certain high- income countries (mainly Canada, Denmark, United Kingdom and the United States of America). In these countries there are significant numbers of pharmacists available and there has been an increasing interest to utilize pharmacy support workforce cadres to allow the extension of clinical roles of pharmacists in these contexts. This is not a systematic presentation of all the literature available but rather a commentary overview supported by key papers. Key points from this literature include: (To allow the reader to clearly understand the country of origin of the themes presented, care has been taken to note the country of origin of the papers used in this commentary).