A day in the life of a Homecare Technician

Rebecca Harvey is the Lead Pharmacy Technician for the Homecare Pharmacy department and has worked for QEF since March 2022. Rebecca explains what her role entails.

“ The Homecare department is a part of the wider Outpatient Pharmacy team. In my team there are four of us who are constant in Homecare. Myself a Technician, Danielle who is a pre-reg trainee technician, Stacy a senior dispenser and Nora our customer service lead. We also have a very dedicated team of medication transfer drivers, Ian, Martin and Paul. I am so proud of my team they are all very important cogs in the Homecare department and each one of them knows their responsibilities and work with excellent standards.

My day always starts the same with the transfer of medication deliveries to the drivers. The department is part of the National Clinical Homecare Association, which means we can provide a dispense and delivery service to patients who have been prescribed specific medications. I will check emails for any medication queries from consultants, secretaries or prescribers and sort out anything that needs to be done as priority. Checking and booking in prescriptions and preparing them to be dispensed. I also deal with new contracts for Newcastle and Cumbria Hospitals so I will have contract meetings with Technicians at the different hospitals, prepare invoices and KPI data and I also oversee the daily tasks in the Homecare room such as dispensing, ordering prescriptions, stock checks and stock ordering.

The best thing about my role is how interesting and different each day can be. It is quite a fast paced role and there is always something that needs to be done. I love that we are constantly updating our roles with new work coming on board and learning about new treatments and procedures.

I am proud of the contracts we have with Newcastle and Cumbria and all of the new responsibilities that I now have to ensure they are running smoothly and correctly. I have also been asked to present training sessions to our pharmacists so I am busy planning that and I also host in house training sessions for our team se we are all always up to date with new medications and devices. I have also recently completed and been assessed to become a workplace supervisor which means I can assist and mentor our Homecare Pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician.

A part of my role people might find surprising is that I do home visits to a certain group of patients on a new medication. I talk to them about the drug and how to administer the medication. Seeing a patient in their own surroundings can make a big difference to how someone is feeling in regards to starting a new medication. All of the treatments we deal with in Homecare are subcutaneous injections, so as you can imagine it can be quite an anxious time for some patients. I feel the home visits have made a huge difference to patient care.

I really enjoy my role, I think there is room to grow and develop within QE Facilities, I think the last few months have proven that. In the short time I’ve been here my responsibilities have increased. My main role when I started with the company was dispensing medications, liaising with patients on the phone and ordering prescriptions from the prescribers and now I am hosting training sessions, completing more training to expand my role, contract meetings and doing home visits.”