The New Role of the Pharmacist
The role of the pharmacist is ever-evolving as new methods come out to better serve patients and the health care industry in general. Pharmacists serve dual roles in providing both medical care and furthering the technological aspects of current medical care. Pharmacists additionally now have a more active role in making scientific breakthroughs and catering more to this side of the health industry.
Most people assume that pharmacists simply sit behind the counter at their local Walgreens and mix together prescriptions day-in and day-out. While this is an accurate assumption for many pharmacists around the country, there are others who are deeply involved with the advances in technology and others who are more heavily involved with physician opinions. This shift in description has evolved only in the past few years, as the role of the pharmacist now includes much more knowledge about the health-care industry than it ever did in the past.
Currently, many of us are looking to pharmacists for comfort amidst the H1N1 flu scare. Flu shots are more popular this year than they have ever been in the past, and there is a heightened focus on health care due both to H1N1 and the congressional bill. As a result, pharmacists have become more important in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the health care industry as they make discoveries regarding viral infections almost yearly. Additionally, physicians now work more closely with pharmacists than they have in the past in order to form revolutionary breakthroughs in the field and cater to their patients more efficiently.
Pharmacists now additionally perform more of a physician role in several states, as they are allowed to administer lab tests and check diagnostics such as blood glucose levels or liver function tests. This is helpful for physicians because patients who have chronic long-term conditions no longer have to come into the office for these tests, but can simply drop by their local pharmacist. Pharmacists have thus become much more involved in patient care and now even perform private patient “counseling” over specific forms of drugs.
As the years pass, the link between pharmacists and doctors will only grow, as breakthroughs in patient care push the two realms of the health industry closer together. Both physicians and pharmacists are informed of the same information when new drugs come out, and both deal directly with the same patients, leading to heightened role of the pharmacist in modern society.
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