import a function twice in Python : I would like to import a function twice in a Python script. I have a class defined in models.py and I want to use the function get_item() in that class as a class method

    import get_functions
    class Shopping_list():
       ...
       def get():
           return get_functions.get_item()

but I also want to use the function get_item() outside the class as an independent function so that my main code has the following imports

    import models
    import get_functions

this does not seem to be allowed, since I get an error. I could define the function twice, but I would like to avoid that. Is there a way to use the functions in get_functions() twice?