Value of Pharmacists

The pharmacist is a vital element enabling the efficient planning and management of the healthcare workforce.  It is a trusted profession.

It has long been recognised internationally by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Keeping in mind changes in population demographics, the increasing prevalence of long-term conditions, should be advanced in technology and medicine and need the support of the health workforce at large.

In line with international trends, many extended pharmacist roles and services are proposed published by International Pharmaceutical Federation [FIP] in 2017 guide Schools of Pharmacy.  The curricula of Pharmacy have been redesigned in recent times to ensure that graduates can fulfil roles expected of them currently, but also those expected of them in the future.

Those who are in the field of pharmacy/ recently graduated pharmacists have expressed dissatisfaction with the profession despite the apparent coordinated and considered approach from government and pharmacy stakeholders.

Generally, pharmacists work in a variety of settings, but most typically in community pharmacy and hospital.  It should be borne in mind that motivation is playing a pertinent role in the pharmacy and to have a  keen interest in health’ and ‘A desire to work with and help people’.

The most common general reasons given for leaving a health profession are low remuneration, a lack of professional development and educational opportunities, weak regulation, unsatisfactory working conditions, high stress levels and low job satisfaction.

The young aspirants/currently are in dissatisfied with pharmacy because of the professional environment’, ‘lack of career pathways and opportunities’ and ‘underutilisation of pharmacists’ skills and knowledge’, ‘lack of recognition of pharmacy from government, other health care professionals, or the public’, ‘inadequate remuneration for services provided’ and ‘lack of consistent and effective representation of the pharmacy profession, too many pharmacy graduates each year; and not having their ideas taken seriously.

Whilst it has been noticed the perception of people about pharmacist changed.  They are seeing them as shopkeepers/ having commercial interests/ retail assistants that override health best practice.  Though “Doctor knows best” and their support actually helps to maintain the norm and people do take it seriously and keep the spirit of best practice. 

It is important to explore the reasons for people entering and leaving the profession since this profession is playing a crucial role in health and mankind and ensure it meets community needs.  One should know the value of a pharmacist.  This needs more focus and a better understanding of those individuals who completed their pharmacy undergraduate degree or aspirants to make a career in this noble profession.

In order to improve the consistency and effectiveness at a higher level, the national pharmacy advocacy and training body should come together with the pharmacy regulatory body to step up and represent and promote services.

It has been seen a lot of pharmacists have left the profession because there is no room for growth and scope.  Need of the hour is there should be a system to improve career pathways and opportunities and it should be challenging enough to keep pharmacist engaged as a profession.

The pharmacist should not be constrained but more in participative nature so that they can play a decisive role on which they are working on.  By allowing them can bring the culture of doctor-pharmacist-people connectivity which is beneficial for any profession or as a country.

There must be a necessary line between doctor and pharmacist. Because both are dealing with health care problems and there should be more integration between the two. 

Now the concept of the pharmacist has changed just playing the whole gatekeeper of medicine's role and dispensing medicines the future of the pharmacist role should be headed is managing patient cases where doctors diagnose and then hand over to pharmacists to manage the medicines care.

While talking about the mechanism to improve the system that does not mean this profession is not much to offer.  The pharmacist is a young profession.  There is a lot of young people in the profession and there are so many good ideas and willingness to change and how to do things better and improve.  There are many pharmacists who possess the appropriate skill mix to support the expansion and development of new models of care and to offer higher level medicines optimization. 

Those having a keen interest in health, science or a desire to work with and help people are the most common reasons for choosing to study pharmacy.

The process of mentoring is another factor that can lead to qualified pharmacists.  In a Canadian study, the quality of mentoring was identified as an influence on advanced pharmacy practice and mentoring has been comprehensively discussed in the recent work of Desselle, et al. and Mantzourani, et al.

The common discussions are reported dissatisfaction with the professional environment, the lack of career pathways and opportunities, and under utilisation of skills and knowledge.  It can be more in tune with a better work environment, competence development and professional career development.

It is high time now the Pharmaceutical Society should forge ahead and bring out some recommendations for action like mentoring and another alternative model of pharmacy service delivery and remuneration. Also, there should be a future-focused policy associated with to specially deal with workplace pressures.