The collaboration between nurses and pharmacy technicians on nursing wards

In Dutch hospitals pharmacy technicians work on a daily basis on nursing wards to be able to carry out their work close to the patient, nurse and doctor. 
Despite its implementation, there is still a lack of understanding of the added value of collaboration between pharmacy technicians and nurses and the desired improvements.
 

Objective

We ask pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and nurses what they think of their collaboration and what could be improved. This project is also conducted in Belgian hospitals. We compare the differences and similarities in cooperation and improvements.

Results

We know that patient safety improves because of the technicians’ focus, which is specifically on medicines. This way nurses can shift their focus to other care provision. There is more communication in the collaboration and this is perceived as pleasant. A few prerequisites were mentioned, such as more working space.

Duration

01 November 2024 - 31 July 2025

Approach

We did individual interviews with seven pharmacy technicians, three pharmacists and nine nurses on different nursing wards of two hospitals.

Collaboration with students

We collaborated with two of our students for this project (pharmaceutical and nurse practioner students at the time).

Sanae Ouhamou and

Judith van de Crommert

HU researchers involved in the research

  • Rob Heerdink | Professor | Research group Innovation in Healthcare Processes in Pharmacology
    Rob Heerdink
    • Professor
    • Research group: Innovation in Healthcare Processes in Pharmacology
  • Nienke Dijkstra
    Nienke Dijkstra
    • Lecturer-researcher
    • Research group: Innovation in Healthcare Processes in Pharmacology

Collaboration with knowledge partners

Would you like to collaborate or do you have any questions?

Nienke Dijkstra

Nienke Dijkstra

  • Lecturer-researcher
  • Research group: Innovation in Healthcare Processes in Pharmacology