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Record learning outcomes

Training your team and ensuring everyone's knowledge is up-to-date are important CPD triggers. 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: hayfever

This Train Your Team checklist provides support and information to run a team training session on hayfever. This content can also be used for your own CPD.

Reflection

• Are my assistants clear about the presentation of hayfever in the pharmacy and the confusion customers may feel about the similarity between hayfever and a summer cold?
• Are they aware that hayfever can begin at any age, not just childhood or teenage years?
• Do they understand how the different medications work and their role in hayfever?
• Are they clear on the ages at which different hayfever products can be given?
• Can they give appropriate advice for avoiding pollen?
• Are there any locally produced guidelines for hayfever? If not, could I contribute to producing some?
• Can we signpost patients to up-to-date sources of information on daily pollen counts?

Training checklist

Ensure support staff understand the following key points:

• Hayfever affects at least one in five of the British population
• Many sufferers are not using the right treatment or are using it incorrectly
• The wide range of symptoms suffered by people with hayfever
• The differences between older and newer oral antihistamines and when to recommend each type
• The triggers for hayfever and how to avoid/minimise them
• How to treat nasal congestion
• The different types of pollen and when they can cause symptoms during the year
• How the pollen count varies with time of day and weather
• When to refer to the pharmacist.

I will:

• Update and revise my knowledge on hayfever and allergic conjunctivitis
• Consider the possibility of a minor ailment service for hayfever (if appropriate)
• Train my pharmacy assistants to ensure that they can meet the points in this training checklist and consider this training exercise as a possibility for inclusion in my CPD record.