EDITORIAL: Moving online and keeping a distance: Danish reaction to challenges when working in pharmacies or training to be a pharmaconomist during COVID-19

Abstract

This article describes the workforce and educational challenges faced by pharmaconomists in Denmark as a consequence of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Danish pharmacies, pharmaconomists make up the majority of the staff. They hold a higher level of qualification than the general European pharmacy technician, more comparable to that of a Bachelor’s degree. In the community pharmacies, pharmaconomists worked long hours and faced new questions and a change in behaviour by the public due to the pandemic. An emergency agreement between The Danish Association of Pharmaconomists and the Association of Danish Pharmacies made flexible planning possible, and guidelines with recommendations meant that most community pharmacies ended up introducing safety measures. In hospitals, pharmaconomists were directly engaged in deciding which kinds of medicine to stock up on to help the COVID-19 patients as they were admitted to hospital. A high level of cooperation and the slashing of red tape made things run relatively smooth. The training of pharmaconomist students went online in spring of 2020, as did exams. It required planning, as did the return to physical school activities as well as CPE in the autumn of 2020.