AUSTRALIA'S pharmacy workforce needs to boost its understanding of geriatric syndromes to cope with the nation's aging population, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) believes.
Marking International Day of Older Persons, SHPA Geriatric Medicine Co-Chair, Gauri Godbole, said maintaining and improving the health of older people will be critical in the years ahead.
"The number of older persons worldwide is projected to double to more than 1.5 billion in 2050, driving the urgency of our efforts to empower not just geriatric medicine pharmacy specialists but a wider pharmacy workforce to improve their understanding of geriatric syndromes," Godbole said.
"Released in February this year and led by the SHPA Geriatric Medicine Leadership Committee, SHPA's Standard of practice in geriatric medicine for pharmacy services highlighted the need for pharmacists with specific geriatric medicine expertise to work as part of interdisciplinary teams to improve the safety and quality of care for older Australians in hospitals, residential aged care facilities and in the community.
"SHPA is also driving efforts to expand this knowledge earlier in the careers of hospital pharmacists, with geriatric medicine embedded as one of the four initial practice pathways of SHPA Advanced Training Residencies, with an accompanying knowledge guide that is cognisant of the different practice settings in which pharmacists may be providing care for older persons."
Highlighting the importance of education the pharmacy workforce about geriatric medicine, SHPA CEO, Kristin Michaels flagged research showed "up to 30% of hospital admissions of people aged 65 years and older are medication-related, and approximately half of these could be prevented".
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 01 Oct 20
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 01 Oct 20
