APTUK

As a pharmacy technician, you need excellent communication and consultation skills. You may be the last health professional the patient sees before they go home with their supply of medicine. Your role may involve supplying new medicines to patients and explaining how the patient should use their medicine to best effect. Whether you work in a hospital, community pharmacy, dispensing practice or any other setting that a patient can access, you have an opportunity to ensure that the patient knows how to take his or her medicine correctly and safely. Being able to communicate clearly and in a way the patient understands is crucial. You need to build a relationship with your patients so that they feel confident to ask questions and discuss their concerns.

As the professional leadership body for pharmacy technicians, our role is to support you in your professional development and help you to improve your consultation skills to meet the requirements of pharmacy practice.

APTUK have a network of local branches where you can meet other like-minded pharmacy technicians and share your learning. Each branch will have regular meetings, which will include training sessions and educational content.

APTUK hold an annual professional conference. The next conference will be held at Aston University, Birmingham on 10 and 11 June 2016. The programme includes a master class on consultation skills, as well as other related topics. For further information visit the APTUK website .

APTUK launched their Foundation Pharmacy Framework (FPF) in summer 2014, and will provide support to members as they work through the framework. The FPF includes a cluster on consultation skills which links to the Consultation skills for pharmacy practice learning and development programme. APTUK will provide resources to help pharmacy technicians collect evidence of achievement and to map these achievements to the requirements of the frameworks, to demonstrate their progress and competence.