JLE

Journal de Pharmacie Clinique

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Initial and continuous radiopharmacy technician’s training: implementation of the quality assurance methodology Volume 27, issue 4, octobre-novembre-décembre 2008

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Authors
Service de pharmacie, Hôpital l’Archet, CHU de Nice, Service de médecine nucléaire, Centre TEP, Hôpital l’Archet, CHU de Nice

Among all the measures to ensure a safe distribution of drugs, staff training and its evaluation are particularly important in radiopharmacy. The preparation of radiopharmaceuticals (RP) is a process, which carries risk, both to patients and staff. It is necessary to have specialised training, assessed and regularly updated, of all the personnel involved, and good practices should then be applied. Our work focuses on the initial and continuous radiopharmacy technician’s training through the assessment of their practices. A specific system has been established, comprising 62 points, relating 9 themes, rated at a factor of 1 to 3 according to their degree of importance. The criteria for the point system were: zero for unacceptable, one for not very suitable, 2 for acceptable, 3 for very satisfactory and 4 for outstanding. The five technicians rotating for RP preparations (with 6 months to 2.5 years of experience) were evaluated individually over 2 days. Four of them were in a continuous qualification process and one at his initial qualification level. At the end of the evaluation process, an interview with each technician was carried out to review each point of the assessments. The majority of the points were satisfactory or outstanding (81.6%). The average mark obtained was 441.6/528 (with a minimum of 346 and a maximum of 483). 5.8% of unacceptable practices were found and related to a lack of knowledge, forgetfulness or bad working practices. A training programme has been created as well as an initiation manual for new pharmacy technicians. This will enable the technicians to better identify possible discrepancies between their practices and the recommended ones and help them maintain a good level of competence. These assessments have confirmed the benefits of perpetuating this system of control, in order to identify critical points and correct problems, whilst satisfying the specific needs for the radiopharmacy technicians.