What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word “pharmacy?” Probably someone in a white lab coat standing/sitting behind a counter dispensing pills or making medications. While partially true, that narrowed down view does not encompass everything about the field of pharmacy. With this in mind, we need to ask ourselves: What is pharmacy?
Pharmacy is an expansive field.
Pharmacy is defined as the practice of compounding (creating) and dispensing (distributing) of medications. However, it is an expansive field that involves many disciplines. These disciplines include:
- Medicinal chemistry
- Pharmaceutics
- Pharmacognosy
- Pharmacology
- Pharmacy Practice
- Pharmacy Administration
Overall, these disciplines stretch across many facets, from research, sales, and politics to the practice of pharmacy itself. All employees are working to ensure that safe, effective, medications are being created and given to patients to improve health and financial outcomes.
Pharmacists are evolving, accessible care givers.
Practicing pharmacists provide a variety of services towards all patients to improve their health, essentially being care givers. Pharmacists stereotypically compound medications and dispense them. However, automation is becoming more prevalent in the medical field, so pharmacists are evolving their practice to include more management and consultative services. Through services such as Medication Therapy Management (MTM), Medication Reconciliation, and general consultations, pharmacists perform a comprehensive review of the patient’s medications. Therefore, the pharmacists can find problems with the patient’s medications and ensure they are following their regimen and taking the correct dosage. In turn, the patient will experience improved health outcomes and possibly save money.
Furthermore, pharmacists are the most readily available, accessible care giver. Whereas talking to doctors and physicians requires scheduling an appointment, pharmacists are available 24/7 to perform said services, typically at no additional cost (for the time being). They are the most trusted of all medical professionals because of their interactions with patients.
Pharmacists are pivotal in collaborative practice.
Pharmacists also play an important role in interdisciplinary practice. More often than not, care givers like physicians and nurses collaborate with pharmacists in a clinical setting. Pharmacists act as the mediator between health care professionals and the patients, as they are the most knowledgeable on medications. The pharmacists can make suggestions to the physicians to ensure patients get the correct medications and the right dosage when they are discharged. Pharmacists can also ensure patients are taking the correct dosage of morphine, or other opioids that are given after surgery. By providing suggestions, the pharmacists help patients to gain optimal health outcomes.
Overall, pharmacy is an expansive and expanding field. While pharmacists do work in the community setting as both compounders and dispensers, as technology advances, those positions will diminish. Pharmacists will evolve to become more patient-oriented. They provide needed consultative and management services, helping patients to better their health-related outcomes while saving money and eliminating financial barriers. Additionally, pharmacists are at the forefront in innovative research. They are continuously doing research to create new and more effective medications. Altogether, pharmacists are more than just their stereotypes, and play a pivotal part in patient care.