Training your team and ensuring everyone's knowledge is up-to-date are important CPD triggers for you. We suggest that you get the team together for a training session based on the activities below and discuss the various ways in which you can offer customers and patients added care in this category.

Subject: bowel health

This Train Your Team checklist provides support and information to run a team training session on bowel health. Work through the activities below. This content can also be used for your own CPD.

Reflection

• Is the pharmacy team confident about discussing potential sensitive and serious bowel health issues in a calm and professional manner? Is any further training required?
• How well do we check customer requests for products that may be indicative of a more serious bowel condition?
• Do we take the opportunity to discuss bowel health when conducting MURs?
• Do we give appropriate lifestyle advice on reducing the risk of bowel cancer?
• Are we alert to the possibility of bowel conditions that can have similar symptoms?
• Do we have information to hand on the various self-help groups for bowel conditions?

Training checklist

Ensure your support staff understand the following key points:

• The incidence of bowel cancer in men and women
• The risk factors associated with bowel cancer
• The importance of early diagnosis for bowel cancer and increased chance of recovery and survival
• Bowel cancer is very treatable
• The importance of talking to customers who are frequently buying antidiarrhoeals or laxatives
• Specific dietary and lifestyle tips to reduce the risk of bowel cancer
• When to refer customers with bowel problems to the pharmacist.

Action. I will:

• Consider how we can raise bowel cancer awareness in the pharmacy
• Ensure that we know the arrangements for bowel cancer screening in our area
• Train my pharmacy assistants to ensure that they can meet the points in the training checklist.

Practice points

• Have a look at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s bowel cancer campaign and see if there are ideas or materials there that you could use to raise awareness of the danger symptoms.