COLLABORATION


this summer two RGU lecturers travelled to the University of Graz in Austria to share best practice in community pharmacy in Scotland.


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While they were at the university, Dr Anita Weidmann and Ina Donat from RGU’s School of Pharmacy and life Sciences delivered a workshop on clinical pharmacy and patient-centred pharmaceutical care planning to undergraduate pharmacy students.


‘The pharmacy profession in Austria differs considerably to that in the UK,’ Dr Weidemann told SP. ‘Historically, their pharmacy degree has been a very science-based degree, with a focus on the formulation of medicines and their optimal delivery to biomolecular targets within the body.


‘As such, Austrian pharmacy education is very much based on chemistry and the students are educated for research purposes. They’re taught, for example, a lot of pharmacognosy (ie, the study of medicinal drugs derived from plants or other natural sources) because they need to utilise such practice in community pharmacy, where there has been a rise in patient demand for herbs. Pharmaceutical technology is also very important because, in practice, they have to make capsules and ointments for the patients. This is obviously a very personalised treatment, which requires a lot of background information, so you can see why there isn’t so much time for the clinical side of pharmacy to be taught.


‘In recent years however there has been an increasing desire in Austria to move the profession towards a more patient-centred care approach which helps to ensure patient safety, improve therapeutic outcomes and reduces the economic burden on the healthcare system, and, naturally, Ina and I were delighted to have been asked share our knowledge and expertise in this area to help with the education of the next generation of Austrian pharmacists.’


The visit to Graz by the two RGU lecturers was actually a ‘return visit’ after Dr Weidemann helped to facilitate a visit from an Austrian community pharmacist,


he Scottish community pharmacy model is recognised as one of the best in Europe and earlier


Iris Reinisch, to RGU last year.


Last autumn, Iris Reinisch spent time with RGU’s School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences to learn more about the development of community pharmacy practice in Scotland (see panel right).


The visit, which was part-funded by the Austrian Government, was designed to allow Iris to learn from experts at RGU, spend time at NHS 24, and visit community pharmacies in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.


‘On the back of Iris’s visit to Scotland,’ Dr Weidemann continued, ‘we realised there was a real incentive in Austria for pharmacy to be more patient centred. For example, they’ve recently introduced a science-based degree, which is very much prescribing function - but it seemed to us that Austria wanted to change this.


‘To date, the University of Graz had had no clinical pharmacy teaching at all, and they are now keen to offer person-centred and clinical pharmacy at university level, so we were invited by the university’s Professor Astrid Ortner to deliver a fifteen-hour block of teaching. This was an elective option which was carried out in English by both myself and by Ina Donat – even though we’re both bilingual!


‘The teaching was both enjoyable and an absolutely success! It was so refreshing and lovely to work with 40 students - ranging from second to final semester - mainly because it was completely new to them.


‘Prior to this all of the pharmacy in Austria had been taught on a purely scientific, systematic approach in terms of pharmaceutical care, but we used, for example, case studies of patients with whom we’d dealt - and the students absolutely loved this!


‘The Austrian system is certainly very intense but, during our time there, they very much showed that they were able to do it. As a result, the University of Graz have now told us that they would like us to not only extend our collaboration with them, but to also offer the same teaching to already qualified pharmacists – and as soon as possible!


‘Despite the fact that the Austrians produce excellent, clinical


pharmacists,’ Dr Weidemann continues, ‘the simple fact is that they don’t have the expertise in patient- centred service delivery and so they have to bring in from outside.


‘I’m certainly very excited about the future. RGU has already welcomed another three university students from Vienna and we recently went to visit them. Also, the University of Graz has already made an agreement with NHS Highland to send two students per annum to Inverness to study for a diploma. It’s all very positive for both Scottish community pharmacy and for Austrian pharmacy teaching!’


Despite the fact that Scotland is teaching Austria about clinical pharmacy, Dr Weidemann believes there’s one very important lesson that can be learnt from Austria!


‘In Austria pharmacists simply dispense and they don’t take any responsibility for what they dispense,’ she says. ‘There’s no mechanism for


FROM MY PERSPECTIVE.... BY IRIS REINISCH


‘From the outset it was obvious that there were many differences in both education and practice between Scotland and Austria. It was great for me to see how the clinical side is taught in Scotland, because that’s obviously where the focus is here. To see how students deal with case studies, to see how they are trained to interact with the doctors and to bring suggestions for improvement with regard to more appropriate treatments was all new for me because these subjects are not taught at Austrian universities.


‘I really feel that interaction between doctors and pharmacists could be much more developed in my home country. It was great to see it at work in Scotland and to see how students are trained in this very important aspect of practice. The education is great and there is a lot of practice, so pharmacists are used to it. This clearly showed me just how important this aspect of pharmacy can be.


‘Because our system is totally different, I saw a lot of things, which I think could – and should - be taught to our students, such as practice in dispensing, and psychosocial interaction. Also, students in Scotland are familiar with the various names for the medications, whereas in Austrian universities we only deal with the active substance names. In Austria, pharmacists also always give the POM medication directly to the patient. They’re always at the counter and we don’t have consultation rooms. All of these should, I feel, be implemented at home.


‘I also got the opportunity to spend time with Ina Donat, who is an independent prescriber at NHS24. We don’t have a facility like this in Austria, but I think it’s a great idea, which would also work in Austria. It was great for me to see other areas outside of the pharmacy where pharmacists can also be active. In Austria pharmacists aren’t even able to become independent prescribers – there aren’t even any independent prescribing courses, so this really was an eye-opener for me, and it was great to see the role that Ina was able to play within healthcare!’


SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 61


responsibility. You go in with your script for, say, paracetamol, and that’s what you will get. It doesn’t tell you what you are taking, who prescribed it or why you’re taking it.


‘Regardless of that, however, the public respects the community pharmacist immensely, mainly, I believe, because there’s a huge public information advert, which is run every two or three advertisements on TV, in which the public is told what they can get in the pharmacy. Then, at the end of the advert, they’re told that, if there’s any risk they should go and see the GP or pharmacists. This advert is played over and over and over. As a result, the public sees the pharmacist on the same level as the GP and therefore has much more respect for the pharmacist than I think we do in Scotland.’ •


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