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

• Has our primary care organisation produced local guidelines for hayfever? If so, am I aware of the content? Do I work within these guidelines?
• Am I aware of guidance on the use of corticosteroids in hayfever and competitive sport/athletics?
• Are my assistants clear on the ages at which different hayfever products can be given?
• Do they know which sources of pollen are most likely to cause symptoms at different times of the year?
• Can they offer appropriate advice for avoiding pollen?

Training checklist

Ensure support staff understand the following key points:

• Hay fever affects at least one in five people
• The wide range of hayfever symptoms
• The impact of hayfever on work, school and leisure
• How to avoid/minimise hayfever triggers
• The danger of anaphylactic shock
• 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:

• Find out if my local primary care organisation has produced hayfever guidelines
• Check the latest national guidelines on hayfever (e.g. Clinical Knowledge Summaries for Allergic Rhinitis)
• Consider the possibility of a minor ailment service for hayfever (if appropriate)
• Ensure my staff can meet the points in this training checklist.

Practice activity

• One of your customers wants to visit Iceland for a week any time between May and August. He is allergic to birch pollen. Which month(s) would be the most suitable? See: Low tree pollen destinations