Summary

Receives and responds to telephone inquiries from the general public, health care practitioners, and other agencies regarding poison and drug information. Provides information on the toxicity of drugs, poisons, chemicals, biologics, hazardous materials, and other substances; recommends antidotes, treatments, and/or courses of action to callers in emergency situations. Provides information on all aspects of drug usage to health care practitioners, agencies, and the public, as assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Receives calls regarding poisonings, suspected poisonings, and other related concerns; obtains complete case histories from callers using appropriate interview techniques.
2. Assesses nature and severity of poisoning utilizing appropriate calculations and resources, and determines appropriate treatment; communicates assessment and recommended treatment to caller.
3. Enters computerized documentation of information received for telephone inquiries and follow up calls, in accordance with established protocol; ensures that all documentation completely and accurately reflects the content of the conversation.
4. Assesses potential for toxic exposure and follows up as appropriate.
5. Provides information to the community regarding drug identification, drug indications or contraindications, dosage and administration, and other, more advanced drug information as consistent with individual level of pharmaceutical expertise.
6. Adheres to established professional standards for customer service and interpersonal relations.
7. Participates in bi-weekly clinical toxicology review sessions; maintains currency of knowledge and expertise in clinical toxicology.
8. May provide specific guidance to and/or participate in training of pharmacy interns and/or students, as appropriate or assigned.
9. Performs miscellaneous job-related duties as assigned.

Minimum Job Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy. Certification/Licensure Must be eligible for licensure as a Pharmacist in the State of New Mexico.
• Completed degree(s) from an accredited institution that are above the minimum education requirement may be substituted for experience on a year for year basis.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

• Knowledge of a wide range of pharmaceutical and other drugs and their indications, contraindications, dosing, interaction, and side effects.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to communicate with and work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
• Data entry and documentation skills.
• Ability to communicate medical information to health care professionals and the public over the telephone under crisis circumstances.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Position requires: a) provision of professional services in a poison center telephone triage patient care environment; b) provision of immediate and accurate toxicity assessments and treatment recommendations for all kinds of poisonings under professional guidance; c) use of professional judgment in providing drug information and consultation to health care providers and the public; d) literature search of scientific studies, indexing and abstracting services, and review articles and texts; e) use of computerized data bases and data entry systems.

Conditions of Employment

• Employees who provide services or work in patient care or clinical areas are required to be in compliance with the University's influenza vaccination requirement.

Working Conditions and Physical Effort

• No or very limited physical effort required.
• No or very limited exposure to physical risk.
• Work is normally performed in a typical interior/office work environment.

The University of New Mexico provides all training required by OSHA to ensure employee safety.

Revised Date: 07/11/2021