Living MedsCheck

Abstract

Objective:

To share the experiences of graduating students as they learn to deliver a new medication review service in community pharmacies in Ontario, Canada.

Practice description:

Four graduating pharmacy students volunteered in different community pharmacies to learn how to navigate a new provincial program called MedsCheck, which pays pharmacists to do medication reviews. Each student selected his or her own practice site, including 2 independent community pharmacies, a grocery store chain pharmacy and a hospital outpatient pharmacy.

Practice innovation:

To help the students learn to deliver the new MedsCheck services, a faculty mentor met with them on a weekly basis. To reflect on doing MedsChecks in the “real world” and to elicit feedback from the online community, each student blogged about his or her experiences.

Results:

All 4 students felt that peer mentoring improved their ability to deliver MedsCheck services. They also identified a number of barriers to delivering the MedsChecks and helped each other try to overcome the barriers.

Conclusion:

MedsCheck is a new service in Ontario and is not easily implemented in the current pharmacy model of practice. Peer mentoring is a helpful way to share successes and overcome barriers to delivery. Can Pharm J 2013;146:33-38.