Be Kind

Tackling difficult situations in your pharmacy

Pharmacy teams are under immense pressure at the moment, in common with other NHS services, and working extremely hard with health service colleagues to provide the right care for patients. 

As pressures on pharmacy services increase, our recent Workforce Wellbeing Survey showed 44% of pharmacists have experienced physical or verbal abuse in the last six months. 

This is unacceptable and we want to help. 

If you or someone you know has experienced abuse in the pharmacy workplace, take a look at the resources below. 

Why Be Kind matters?

Our pharmacists face extreme pressure on a regular basis. We are asking the public to be patient and want to help support your pharmacy teams during these busy periods.

Hear from leaders in healthcare spread the message to be kind during busy periods, including David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Jason Leitch, Scottish Government's National Clinical Director and Jonathan Simms, Chair of the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee.

   

WATCH MORE 

Other RPS Resources

Read some of our top tips on Managing Conflict: Dealing with Angry and Abusive Patients. 

Learn how to manage conflicts at work through building assertiveness and professional relationships.

Training

NHS England: Handling difficult situations with compassion

NHS England is offering a training course to all frontline, patient-facing NHS colleagues, including community pharmacists, to teach you the skills and techniques you need to handle difficult situations with compassion. 

Where and when?

You can sign up at any time and the training will be held virtually using MS Teams for three hours. 

What will you learn?

  • The types of difficult situations our NHS colleagues may face
  • Foundation-level communication skills and techniques to handle difficult situations
  • Access to dedicated time to practice these skills and techniques in a safe place

BOOK YOUR TRAINING NOW

Posters to download

Click on the posters below to download them.

                        

Have you seen our Workforce Wellbeing Survey results?

The evidence from our 2022 Workforce Wellbeing survey shows that the pressures on the pharmacy workforce continue to negatively impact on mental health and wellbeing, with high workloads and staff shortages clearly affecting the workforce.

To find out more, visit our workforce wellbeing page.