Edith Dillon who works in the pharmacy at SWAH
EDITH Dillon is the lead pharmacy technician for admissions to the South West Acute Hospital, specialising in the preparation and dispensing of medicines for patients both on arrival and when being discharged. It’s a role she thoroughly enjoys, interacting with both patients and ward staff on a daily basis.
A former pupil of Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School, Edith is married to Andrew. They live in the country between Maguiresbridge and Tempo with their two teenage children who both attend Enniskillen Royal Grammar School. Edith’s interest in her chosen field of work began in her first job in a pharmacy environment over 20 years ago when she worked in Brenda Carson’s community chemist shop in Maguiresbridge.
“It was here that I began to develop a real interest in pharmacy so after a career break to have my two children I started working in the Erne Hospital as a pharmacy support worker. From here on I went on to do my technician course and have worked as a technician for over ten years in the Tyrone County Hospital, Erne Hospital and now at our lovely new South West Acute Hospital,” Edith explains.
SWAH’s very busy pharmacy department is made up of over 40 staff, from porters and support workers to technicians and pharmacists.
Edith added: “We all work together providing a high standard of service to the hospital and community. The pharmacy is the heart of the hospital providing all the drugs and medical products to the various wards and departments. We also supply to community patients and nursing homes or supply the vaccines to the GP surgeries throughout Fermanagh and to the school health team. We have fabulous technology in our pharmacy department such as our robot where we store and process a lot of our drugs.”
A key part of Edith’s daily role involves working on the wards in the hospital, looking after the patient from admission to discharge stage.
“I would arrive on a ward in the morning and start first to see the new patients. I would order up all the drugs prescribed for them and put them in their bedside lockers. If they have their own drugs with them I will do an assessment on them for re-use.
“There will be a pharmacist on the ward with me so any drug related queries can be dealt with immediately. The technicians also do a daily review of the patient’s medications in case of any changes prescribed and then when it’s time to go home I will prepare their medicines for discharge. The pharmacy staff work as part of the multidisciplinary team to ensure all our patient’s medicine related needs are met.”
Despite all her experience to date, Edith says there are always new skills to learn and she is keen to keep up to date on the latest developments.
“I have done accredited courses through the Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development (NICPLD) in Queen’s. This allows me to order medications, assess patient’s own drugs and more recently I have taken on a role, Drug History Taking.
“This role was previously just done by pharmacists but now there is an accredited course to allow technicians to do this. It means we write up an accurate list of all the medications a patient was taking prior to admission so that the pharmacist can sort out all discrepancies and queries very quickly at admission and pass on. I am also a qualified accredited checking technician which allows me to final check discharge prescriptions and orders.”
As Edith has explained there are plenty of opportunities for a technician to progress and as they are accredited courses, you can take them anywhere to work in UK. Despite this she is keen point out the current shortage of technicians in Northern Ireland. Instead of facing worries over university fees or being in debt, Edith says a pharmacy technician student can both go to college and work at the same time.
“As well as studying for a BTEC in Pharmacy Services they will do an NVQ Level 3 in their workplace and will have an assessor to mentor them through this two year course. I am a qualified NVQ Assessor and this is one of my favourite roles in work. It’s great to see someone develop and build good teamwork and life skills.”
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