A rundown of the new policies:
- 5-ht2 agonist, entactogen and empathogen (psychedelic) assisted therapy: Recognize the therapeutic potential of psychedelic assisted therapies and encourage further research.
- Additional education requirements for pharmacy technicians in advanced roles: Encourage pharmacy technicians to have additional training, such as an associate degree.
- Documentation of patient care services in the permanent health record: Advocate for patient health records that support documentation by pharmacy workers.
- Enhancing the safety of hazardous drug product handling: Advocate for manufacturers to eliminate surface contamination and standardize labeling and package design of hazardous drugs.
- Independent double checks for single practitioners: Endorse independent double checks when a single practitioner is solely responsible for ordering, dispensing, administering and monitoring a therapy.
- Independent prescribing authority: Assert that pharmacists have independent authority to initiate, monitor, modify and deprescribe medications.
- Liability protection: Advocate for pharmacy workers to be able to provide services without fear of legal consequences or harassment.
- Nonprescription status of rescue and reversal medications: Support this nonprescription status, promote policies to make these medications affordable and accessible, and foster training on these therapies.
- Opposition to pharmacy jurisprudence examination requirement: Champion for the “removal of standalone examination of federal or state law as a requirement for licensure to increase interstate practice flexibility.”
- Pharmacist’s role on ethics committees: Advocate for pharmacists to be on ethics committees at health systems and hospitals.
- Pharmacy residency training: Increase recruitment and retention of ASHP-accredited pharmacy residency training programs.
- Prehospital management of medications: Assert that variation in prehospital medication management poses a risk to patient safety.
- Role of artificial intelligence in pharmacy practice: Recognize AI as a tool “with tremendous potential to improve patient care and the medication-use process through the enhancement of pharmacy practice.”
- Safe medication sourcing, storage, preparation and administration in all sites of care: Advocate for uniform regulatory standards of medication safety across all sites of care.
- State prescription drug monitoring programs: Support states’ prescription drug monitoring programs and encourage policies that allow pharmacy workers to access this data.
- Testing for pregnancy status: Affirm that pregnancy testing should only be performed with the patient’s informed consent or, when feasible, only when the results would change the patient’s care.
