IPN 2022 November

Deirdre Dominating the Role of Pharmacy Technicians

Deirdre Doherty, O’Donnells totalhealth Pharmacy, Gweedore: Winner of the Paolo Iacovelli Community Pharmacy Technician of the Year Award

The first accolade at the Irish Pharmacy Awards was given out in memory of Paolo Iacovelli, one of the first ever sponsors of the Community Pharmacy Technician of the Year category. It went on the night to Deirdre Doherty of O’Donnells totalhealth Pharmacy, Gweedore.

Laura Romero Iacovelli, PharmaConex with the winner of the Paolo Iacovelli Community Pharmacy Technician of the Year Award Deirdre Doherty, totalhealth Pharmacy, Gweedore, Tracey Barry and Manuela Cavaliere, both PharmaConex

One of the most relied-upon members of staff, Deirdre is regularly described as dedicated, adaptable, reliable, motivated, and hard-working. She has impeccable people skills and is a true teamplayer. She leads by example within the team, she never seems to stop working trying to find ways we can operate more efficiently. Deirdre works longer hours than the normal shop day. She continues after work and often on days off when duty calls.

She has proud community spirit and puts everyone else’s needs before her own, especially the customer and patient.

O’Donnell’s totalhealth Pharmacy lies in the Donegal Gaeltacht and is primarily Irish-speaking.

The pharmacy is located in a community hub premises, that serves as a meeting place for locals to congregate and connect, part of what community pharmacy is all about.

Her Supervising Pharmacists says, “Deirdre is regarded by her colleagues, customers and patients as very passionate and genuine person. Her commitment and contribution to the business is exceptional on so many fronts.

“Deirdre joined the pharmacy team at O’Donnell’s totalhealth Pharmacy 25 years ago in 1997 as a trainee OTC assistant. Her passion for community pharmacy was evident from the beginning, and she continued to progress her knowledge and her career,

being promoted to Front of Shop Manager, lending her support and knowledge to staff and customers.

“Deirdre completed the IPU Pharmacy Technician course in 2013 and acts as the pharmacy’s senior technician in conjunction with her front of shop manager duties. Her commitment to both roles knows no bounds. She is respected and admired by patients and team mates alike, and is relied upon for her dedication and effort daily. Deirdre’s commitment to her professional development is evident by the number of training courses she has completed with distinction to improve her knowledge and competency in her pharmacy role.” These courses include:

• totalhealth Medicine Counter Assistant

• totalhealth First Aid

• totalhealth Vitamins & Natural Remedies

• NPA Medicine Counter Assistant Course

• Retail Training with Skillnet Ireland

• Lipotrim Training for monitored weight management.

Deidre also continues to add to her knowledge of retail and management and is always the driving force behind new initiatives and services.

“Deidre is an incredibly competent pharmacy technician, consistently looking for new ways to improve the workings of their dispensary. She is innovative and adapts to new processes and procedures quickly and effectively.

“Deirdre was instrumental in setting up our very successful Covid-19 vaccination service. She organised local tradesmen to carry out necessary works to the pharmacy so that we had proper areas available to carry out vaccinations and antigen testing, and developed an efficient manual booking system which we used until we adopted a walk in service. Deirdre quickly became an expert on the HSE Covid platform and spent a lot of time chasing up certificates for our patients, often in her own time. Watching her in action during the recent unprecedented demand for vaccination and testing truly shone a light on the potential for technicians to play a more prominent role in services like these. We couldn’t have managed without her.”

At her core, Deirdre is the patient advocate, the person who goes to the ends of the earth 24/7, often following up queries for them on her days off and very often after hours. Her approach is consistently person-centred, with her patients and with her teammates.

She attends clinical meetings in the local nursing home where she brings an incredible amount of value helping to solve medication issues at the home, as well as going to great lengths to ensure the nursing staff and their patients are looked after as best as possible.

“Deirdre Doherty is the heart and soul of everything we do in O’Donnell’s as part of a very happy team, many of whom have been with us for 25 years or more. She is a natural leader, who leads by example, always striving for excellence and inspiring others to do the same.”

Throughout Covid, as the entire team excelled and gave selflessly of their time and energy, Deirdre went that extra step to ensure the pharmacy was always run safely and efficiently and that everyone in the team was happy in difficult circumstances, and that patients and customers were kept safe and informed.

As new staff members come on board, Deirdre makes sure they feel welcome and part of the team. She

Community Pharmacy Technician of the Year Award winner

Deirdre Doherty

takes responsibility for ensuring the new staff member is trained up appropriately. She is the first to volunteer for anything new and works hard to bring others along.

In addition to her pharmacy technician role and managing the front of shop, Deirdre also manages to find time to do the accounts. She is also the totalhealth Ambassador for her pharmacy and integrates all the learnings from the totalhealth and CommCare group into her work and the work of all at the pharmacy.

“Everybody benefits from Deirdre’s work, especially our patients.

“As a technician, Deirdre is as strong as anyone I’ve ever worked with. She is incredibly organised – she has implemented processes in our dispensary to ensure the most efficient workflow, making sure that patient needs are met effectively, and that every member of the dispensary team can work to full potential. This has included a queuing system for waiting prescriptions, methods of taking patient information more efficiently, a repeat prescription service, and ways of identifying prescriptions that require additional counselling or advice. New patients are welcomed to the pharmacy, and she makes sure they are confident and comfortable taking their medicines to aid adherence.

“We benefitted greatly from Deirdre’s organisational skills during Covid-19, as she quickly implemented remote ordering of prescriptions and a delivery service. High risk patients were identified and contacted to make sure their needs were met.

“Deirdre single-handedly arranged an ongoing charity fundraiser using our loyalty points system. Customers can elect to donate their points to our local Donegal Cancer Bus, a charity that helps lessen the burden of travelling to Dublin for cancer patients when they are getting their treatment. Deidre came up with the idea, liaised with the charity, promoted it within the pharmacy and to the wider community and it has been continued to be extremely successful.

“Deirdre recently identified the need for us to automate some of our dispensing process and spearheaded research into new blistering solutions so we can meet the needs of our patients and the demands of our business.

“She leads by example within the team, she never seems to stop

working trying to find ways we can operate more efficiently. Deirdre works longer hours than the normal shop day. She continues after work and often on days off when duty calls.

“She has proud community spirit and puts everyone else’s needs before her own, especially the customer and patient. She brings everyone along when we try new things in the pharmacy. Most recently with everything Covid, Deirdre was central to sourcing essential supplies and following up on orders at a time of great uncertainty.”

Deirdre embodies the traits and values that make for an excellent pharmacy technician. She consistently strives to improve the patient journey, making service effective and efficient, as well as being patient-centred and focused on health promotion and optimal health outcomes. As a natural leader, she inspires others to achieve the highest standards possible. She is innovative and creative, as well as being extremely proactive about finding solutions, and implementing new initiatives and improvements, always with the patient at heart. Patient safety is of utmost importance to Deirdre; she always ensures that we have up to date and valid prescriptions and that patients are suitably counselled and supported. Dispensary paperwork and admin is kept constantly up-to-date, ensuring correct reimbursement and rejects prevention. She is of incredible support to the entire dispensary team and works to use her skills and knowledge to develop others, as well as continuing to improve her own expertise.

She embodies everything that is good about community pharmacy

and the values that the team has learned from Evelyn O’Donnell MPSI (RIP) our founder.

Deirdre embodies the traits and values that make for an excellent pharmacy technician. She consistently strives to improve the patient journey, making service effective and efficient, as well as being patient-centred and focused on health promotion and optimal health outcomes.

As a natural leader, her team say she inspires others to achieve the highest standards possible. She is innovative and creative, as well as being extremely proactive about finding solutions, and implementing new initiatives and improvements, always with the patient at heart. Patient safety is of utmost importance to Deirdre; she always ensures that we have up to date and valid prescriptions and that patients are suitably counselled and supported. Dispensary paperwork and admin is kept constantly up-to-date, ensuring correct reimbursement and rejects prevention. She is of incredible support to the entire dispensary team and works to use her skills and knowledge to develop others, as well as continuing to improve her own expertise. She embodies everything that is good about community pharmacy and the values that the team has learned from Evelyn O’Donnell MPSI (RIP), the pharmacy’s founder.