Buvidal Pilot
Buvidal Pilot Pharmacy perspective by Chris Johnstone, MPharm IP, Owner/Operator of Blackburn Pharmacy, sharing insights on expectations vs. reality and reflections on integrating Buvidal in community pharmacy settings. The narrative highlights the importance of compassionate care, active listening, building rapport with addiction patients, and the need for flexibility in patient interactions.
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Presentation Transcript
Buvidal Pilot Pharmacy perspective Chris Johnstone MPharm IP Owner/Operator of Blackburn Pharmacy
Buvidal Pilot Expectations We strongly felt we could we could offer a pleasant environment for Buvidal patients with our two spacious consultation rooms and double pharmacist cover. I had previous experience in working with addictions patients during my time in Linlithgow where myself, a community psychiatric nurse and local GP ran a group for addicts to discuss their experiences in healthcare and learn the processes from a healthcare perspective. I had also shadowed many addictions prescribers in my training to become an independent prescriber (IP). The vision of my pharmacy is to improve the health of the community through compassionate connection. Therefore the Buvidal patients could also enjoy a non biased and welcoming atmosphere. I thought the overall patient interaction would be no different in terms of time to a regular consultation.
Buvidal Pilot Expectations vs Reality The patients required a much longer time in the consultation, especially during the first few interactions. One of the tenets of compassionate care is active listening - some of our patients had a lot to say and we needed to actively listen until they felt heard. These interactions developed a stronger connection with the patients as opposed to the methadone program. e.g we may be 1-1 with a Buvidal patient in the consultation room for 10-15 minutes just going over the questionnaires for the first time, this excludes the injection time and rapport building. Therefore the patient receives a much more personalised pharmacy experience. Although the addictions community can be generally forthcoming about their addictive behaviours the questionnaires were personal and some patients needed encouragement to fill out details of the past weeks behaviours. This was an opportunity to build rapport with the patient. The Buvidal injection itself is nearly always painful - this was another opportunity to build rapport!
Buvidal Pilot Reflections Buvidal in community pharmacy allows for compassionate connection to patients in a 1-1 situation. Currently when administered by nurses there has to be two nurses present for the injection. This could potentially prevent the patient from speaking freely. This also dictates when their appointment can be and does not allow for flexibility. Allowing the patient to develop a relationship with members of their community in the local pharmacy is a step forward to reintegration into society. Addiction patients regularly state they are looked upon differently than others in the community and generally long to be a part of it. I enjoy the 1-1 interactions in the consultation room. Although it would not be possible as a Responsible Pharmacist to spend more than 10 minutes in the consultation room with each patient. Therefore trained pharmacy staff such as technicians and foundation year pharmacists should be considered as appropriate to provide the service alongside pharmacists.
Buvidal Pilot Closing remarks Pharmacy is well suited for specialist addiction treatments such as Buvidal although the patients would receive better service if there was a practice of compassionate care within the pharmacy team. The pharmacy interact with addiction patients more regularly than the drug workers and prescribers and could work closer in terms of feeding back patients suitability for Buvidal.
