Editorial
Welcome to the March edition of i2P – Information to Pharmacists.
You may have noiticed if you receive i2P by email, that we have simplified our mail out presentation.
This was because the code in our earlier version appeared to be too unstable to maintain, hence the simpler presentation.
Columns
Rollo Manning: Pharma-Goss
John Dunlop: Inside NZ
Loretta Marron BSc: Health Watch
Barry Urquhart: Marketing Focus
Harvey Mackay: Strategic Thinking
Mark Neuenschwander: I`ve been thinking about...Recent Comments
Past Editions
Volume 1 Number 1
Volume 1 Number 2
Volume 1 Number 3
Volume 1 Number 4
Volume 1 Number 5
Volume 1 Number 6
Volume 1 Number 7
Volume 2 Number 1
Volume 2 Number 2
Pharma News
Hospital News
Health Politics
Pat Gallagher: Health Informatics - The State of the Nation
Peter Sayers: The Three-Ring Circus
Dr David More: e-Health IdentifiersEPublications
What a good idea
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Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues | |
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) in Victoria wants extra government funding made available over the next four years so that retired doctors can be encouraged to re-enter the public hospital system to teach medical graduates wanting to specialise as surgeons, cardiologists, and obstetricians. It's the type of idea that could be paralleled in pharmacy except for the fact that professional practice has not developed or specialised to any extent. Still, it's an idea that could be worked on, retaining senior pharmacists in respectful work in a teaching and mentoring position, plus developing paid professional services at the same time.
Very little thought has been directed to the productive employment of our senior pharmacists, yet they represent a valued resource, particularly when channelled into productive projects that are meaningful.
On the doctor side, the AMA believes that as 557 medical graduates have just started as interns, that many will be unable to continue studying in areas such as neurosurgery and gynaecology because there are insufficient postgraduate training places.
The Victorian government has been asked to pay 70 retirees each year to work part-time in public hospitals as mentors to young doctors. Each retiree doctor would work an average of two four-hour shifts a week to accommodate 150 extra training places needed to address the specialist shortfall.
Dr Kevin Macdonald, the chairman of AMA Victoria’s retired doctors group, told The Age newspaper: “I’ve had quite a number of doctors say to me that you sort of fall into a vacuum after you retire. These are people who have been at the top of their profession for a very long time. For them to suddenly wander off into the wild blue yonder, it’s pretty daunting”.
I wonder where all those senior pharmacists go when they drift off into the sunset?
Given that there will be a future skills shortage (even though pharmacy is set for a pharmacist surplus over the next few years), someone somewhere within pharmacy leadership should be making decisions for the benefit of the profession.
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