Why Confidentiality Matters to Students in Pharmacy Assistant Training
May 10, 2019
An individual’s health is, by nature, a very personal matter. Privacy and confidentiality may seem like a rarity in today’s constantly connected world, but it still remains a pillar of healthcare services, and respecting a customer’s right to privacy is an important part of working in a pharmacy.
As a pharmacy assistant, you will work under the supervision of a pharmacist or pharmacy technician to ensure that your community gets the medication they need to stay healthy. This means that you’ll often be handling sensitive information, whether that involves filling prescriptions, maintaining pharmacy records, or speaking with customers during a sales transaction, which makes confidentiality an important aspect to keep in mind.
If you’re interested in becoming a pharmacy assistant, read on to find out why maintaining confidentiality matters during your career.
Pharmacy Assistants Know That a Standard of Confidentiality Maintains Trust
When visiting your pharmacy, customers know that you have access to what is often very intimate and personal information about their health, and they want to be sure that they can trust you to respect their privacy.
Trust is an important aspect of the relationship between customer and pharmacy assistant
Maintaining confidentiality between your pharmaceutical team and your customers helps show them that their trust has been placed with the right people. It also gives you and your pharmacy a reputation of professionalism and respect, two important aspects that are key to success in the healthcare industry. Some customers may be embarrassed by the nature of their prescription or otherwise reluctant to visit the pharmacy, but using your pharmacy assistant training to provide proper care and privacy can help put their minds at ease and allow you to serve your community effectively.
Confidentiality Can Be a Legal Matter for Pharmaceutical Professionals
For pharmaceutical assistants and their team, confidentiality can be much more than a courtesy—it actually involves a legal element as well.
Canada has a federal law known as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which concerns all personal data, including healthcare information. It states that an organization is fully accountable and responsible to protect the data it collects. While each province can form their own privacy laws regarding healthcare, they must all be similar to PIPEDA.
In Ontario, health information custodians such as pharmacists and pharmacy assistants are ethically and legally obligated to protect personal health information under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), which means that outside of specific circumstances, personal health information cannot be shared without the consent of the person it relates to.
Pharmacy Assistant Training Can Help You Best Manage Private Information
Managing documentation and information consistently and with confidentiality helps ensure that your pharmacy continues to operate efficiently and with a good reputation.
As a pharmacy assistant, you’ll be expected to handle, process, and maintain private information, including prescription records, inventory, and sales transactions. Although it may seem overwhelming to be trusted with such personal data, a pharmacy assistant course can help you understand the best way to manage the information you work with from day to day.
Students at Medix can use their training to handle customer’s information with confidentiality
Your program can teach you valuable technical skills that can help you better organize and work with administrative tasks such as filing and updating customer records. It can also teach you how to approach this information with confidentiality in mind, which helps ensure that your customers’ information is kept private between themselves and your pharmacy.
Are you interested in taking the next steps towards your future pharmaceutical career?
Contact Medix College for more information about earning your pharmacy assistant diploma in Ontario.
