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THE PHARMACISTS ROLE

Talks about the duty of the pharmacist in healthcare

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peaceeleyinmi
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13 views

THE PHARMACISTS ROLE

Talks about the duty of the pharmacist in healthcare

Uploaded by

peaceeleyinmi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PCT201

ROLE OF PHARMACISTS

The pharmacist is “a person prepared to formulate, dispense, and provide clinical information on drugs
or medications to health professionals and patients.” A pharmacist is a one of the person in health care
team, and he plays a key role in providing quality healthcare and pharmaceutical care to the public. They
are experts in medicines and use their clinical expertise, together with formulation, quality control,
practical knowledge, to ensure the safe supply and use of medicines by the public.

1. The pharmacist is competent on drugs.


2. He promotes the justified use of drugs.
3. He advises on the choice and safe use of prescription and OTC drugs, through medication
surveillance and personal information.
4. He also advises on medical supplies and enables justified and individual home care.
5. He confers with physicians on choice and use of drugs and medical supplies.

FUNCTION OF PHARMACIST

1. Patient Related Functions


✓ Professional functions
These demands skills and experience acquired during training in the pharmacy school.
These include
1. Dispensing prescriptions
2. Dispensing Over the Counter Drugs
Non - prescription drugs may be obtained without formal consultation with the
physician. Pharmacist offer appropriate advice on the selection and use of such
drugs
3. Providing professional advice
This advice may be given to patients, physicians, government, private groups or
other health practitioners. It requires professional knowledge and skill to provide
the needed information that is appropriate in scope and content
Pharmacist practicing in the community can provide such advices to people. Drug
abuse/misuse education, immunization , contraceptive counselling
4. Selecting product for inventory
He takes part in drug selection decisions for Hospitals. This is because many drougs
products are available in most therapeutic categories, a choice has to be made
based upon professional knowledge and judgment and not solely on market
demand.
✓ Technical functions
These technical functions are carried out sometimes by technical staffs under the
supervision of the Pharmacist e. stocking shelves, pre packing of multiple or unit dose
drugs, reconstituting drug powders, re packing of drugs etc
✓ Administrative, Supervisory and managerial functions
Pharmacists are involved in some degree of administrative duties e.g record keeping,
maintaining patient drug history, pricing procedures. With proper panning such tasks

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along with others such as inventory control, personal scheduling, payroll may be
delegated to clerks but a supervisory responsibility remains for the Pharmacist
✓ Entrepreneurial functions
Many Pharmacist establish their own Pharmacy by investing personal and borrow funds.
Thus, they take financial risk and their success depends directly on their own skills as
professionals and managers/entrepreneurs

2. Practice Related Functions


✓ Research and development
1. Establishment of physicochemical properties of drug that influence their potency,
stability and bioavailability
2. Scientific investigation of product stability
3. Evaluation of new materials for their specification- colours, flavors, preservatives
4. Investigation into suitability and possible improvement of proposed packaging
material
5. Assess the safety and efficacy of new medicines
6. Developing the prototype formulations for administration first in animals and later for
trials in humans,
7. Process development for drug that performs well in trials and is nominated to go into
full-scale commercial production
✓ Production
Manufacture/production of a medicine involves many stages from chemical synthesis of
the drug substance through production of the dosage form, quality control, packaging
and distribution. Quality assurance, including Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), is
vital at all stages and the pharmacy training is very relevant to this area.
✓ Distribution of drugs
Once manufactured, drug products must be sold and the marketing department does
this. Pharmacists function as Medical sales representatives.
✓ Teaching and research in Academic institutions
Teaching ad training in Pharmacy schools. In Pharm D training Pharmacist are involved
in teaching as preceptors in internship and externship programmes
✓ Legal and regulatory functions
The requirements of Regulatory Authorities exert a considerable influence on the
development, manufacture and marketing of medicines. E.g NAFDAC, NDLEA, PCN
✓ Medical writing
In pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations (CROs), medical
writers are involved throughout the development of a new drug. Documents range from
protocols, which describe how each study is to be run, through to submissions to
regulatory authorities, which describe the effectiveness and safety of a new drug and
present a case for why it should be approved for use. You can also write manuscripts for
publication in medical journals, informative material for doctors, nurses or patients, and
promotional material for sales and marketing teams.
✓ Pharmaceutical journalism

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THE SEVEN–STAR PHARMACIST IN HEALTH CARE TEAM

Contemporary and future pharmacists must possess specific knowledge, attitudes, skills and
behaviours in support of their roles. To be effective health care team members, pharmacists need
skills and attitudes enabling them to assume many different functions. The concept of the “Seven-
star pharmacist” was introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2014. These
roles can be summarized in ‘the seven star pharmacist’.

1. Care-giver – the pharmacist provides caring services. Whether these services are clinical,
analytical, technological or regulatory, the pharmacist must be comfortable interacting with
individuals and populations. The pharmacist must view his or her practice as integrated and
continous with those of the health care system and other pharmacists. Services must be of
the highest quality.
2. Decision-maker – the appropriate, efficacious and cost effective use of resources (e.g.,
personnel, medicines, chemicals, equipment, procedures, practices) should be at the
foundation of the pharmacist’s work. Achieving this goal requires the ability to evaluate,
synthesize and decide upon the most appropriate course of action.
3. Communicator – the pharmacist is in an ideal position between physician and patient. As
such, he or she must be knowledgeable and confident while interacting with other health
professionals and the public. Communication onvolves verbal, non-verbal, listening and
writing skills.
4. Leader – whether the pharmacist finds him/herself in multidisciplinary (e.g., team) caring
situations or in areas where other health care providers are in short supply or non-existent,
he/she is obligated to assume a leadership position in the overall welfare of the community.
Leadership involves compassion and empathy as well as the ability to make decisions,
communicate, and manage effectively.
5. Manager – the pharmacist must effectively manage resources (human, physical and fiscal)
and information; he or she must also be comfortable being managed by others, whether an
employer or the manager/leader of a health care team. More and more, information and its
related technology will provide challenges to the pharmacist as he/she assumes greater
responsibility for sharing information about medicines and related products.
6. Life-long-learner – it is no longer possible to learn all one must learn in school in order to
practice a career as a pharmacist. The concepts, principles and commitment to lifelong
learning must begin while attending pharmacy school and must be supported throughout
the pharmacist’s career. Pharmacists should learn how to learn.
7. Teacher – the pharmacist has a responsibility to assist with the education and training of
future generations of pharmacists. Participating as a teacher not only imparts knowledge to
others, it offers an opportunity for the practitioner to gain new knowledge and to fine-tune
existing skills.

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