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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. This content can also be used for your own CPD.

Reflection

• Is any further training required to help the team discuss bowel health issues with customers?
• 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 encourage appropriate customers to attend their GP practice for cancer screening?
• 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 physiology and function of the gut and what can go wrong with it
• The importance of talking to customers who frequently buy antidiarrhoeals or laxatives
• Specific lifestyle tips for customers with occasional constipation
• The range of symptoms associated with IBS
• IBS should not be treated in the pharmacy without a previous medical diagnosis
• What is meant by constipation
• The risk factors associated with bowel cancer
• How an early diagnosis for bowel cancer increases the chances of recovery and survival
• When to refer to the pharmacist.

Action. I will:

• Consider how we can raise bowel cancer awareness in the pharmacy and make sure we know what the arrangements are for bowel cancer screening in our area
• Ensure my pharmacy assistants are able to meet the points in this training checklist.

Practice points

• What is leaky gut syndrome? See nhs.uk/conditions/leaky-gut-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx
• What can cause a leaky bowel and what can it lead to in terms of other conditions?