Investigate an Aspect of a Pharmacist’s Career
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Due Date
Abstract
Pharmacists are a medical professional whose roles revolve around dispensing medication and guiding patients on how to use the prescriptions. Their work environment involves hospitals and relevant consumer stores. An individual becomes a pharmacist by qualifying in a pharmaceutical professional degree and complementary exams for licensing. Their salaries also vary depending on one’s practice that is involved in the private or public sector. The employment prospect is remarkably constant in the field. However, the emergence of technological advancements such as the use of online ordering of drugs poses a threat to the existence of human pharmacists. To effectively deliver their services, these professionals need to portray specific qualities like a good memory, accurate prescription interpretation, empathetic, and business-oriented. Nonetheless, these traits do not make pharmacists perfect in their tasks. They can also make mistakes; thus, patients should keenly monitor their prescriptions. Failure to do limits the client’s safety and may result in poisoning or condition worsening. All in all, it is an admirable and rewarding profession.
Keywords: Pharmacist, qualities, prescription, patients
Investigate an Aspect of a Pharmacist’s Career
Pharmacy remains to be a crucial profession due to its contribution to saving lives. Pharmacists carry out their roles like drug dispensation, correction of errors, and patient counseling efficiently (Khan et al., 2019). They undergo intense training to grasp topics relevant to their career. Significantly, they pursue a four-year professional degree in Doctor of Pharmacy. Progressively, they get a license to practice their skills. They can select various career paths to work as a community, industrial, consulting, regulatory, home care, and compounding pharmacists. Most of these specializations rely upon one’s interest or their academic qualifications. Nonetheless, changes in health care delivery call for pharmacists to be flexible in their careers. As such, one of the major goals is to offer patient-centered care that satisfies the client’s demands. Moreover, they should recognize the role of technology in the modern delivery of health care. Organizations like the National Pharmaceutical Council keep pharmacists in check through the control of research. These investigations promote communication, information dissemination, education, and development. Pharmacists deliver excellent services by thriving on qualities like a good memory, empathy, and information orientation.
As some of the most trusted individuals, pharmacists ought to portray an array of traits that make them outstanding among others. Firstly, they need good memory (Rowland, 2020). Any excellent pharmacist knows that they cannot deliver without any clear comprehension of terms like drug details such as its nomenclature and side effects. The workplaces are the points where they get to utilize lessons taught in class practically. As such, their profession should involve consistent knowledge acquisition to keep abreast of various developments. Such initiatives increase the interpretation accuracy rate of the professional. They can read a doctor’s prescription and fulfill the instructions. Most pharmacists enroll in part-time studies even as they work to meet this demand.
Secondly, a pharmacist is empathetic. This skill allows them to acknowledge the client’s perspectives. Consequently, they incorporate kindness and patience in their operations (Rowland, 2020). They also achieve effective communication with the patients and their families. The humility goes a long way in building their reputation with outsiders. For instance, there may be potential delays in the payment of the drugs by the client. Alternatively, realizing one’s illness often affects them both mentally and physically, and thus the pharmacist triggers their positivity over the issues. How the professional reacts influences their relationship with the patient. An unintimidating nature strengthens the bond making it less challenging to dispense the right medicine.
Thirdly, they ought to be communal educators. Their role spans informing their clients on strategies of living healthy lives, especially when one is under treatment (Rowland, 2020). Pharmacists must be as detailed as possible to ensure the patients grasp all essential information. Failure of this skill hinders the medication progress of the patient. Also, they should remain business-oriented in case the pharmacy is their entrepreneurial venture. They ought not to tolerate any actions that prohibit their success. Most importantly, pharmacists need to meet all the ethical considerations of their practice.
Despite these positive attributes that these professionals should have, they are apparent to make mistakes as they deliver their services. There are instances where health care providers have much work overload. As a result, an upsurge in their stress levels may cause errors. For instance, the underside, overdose, or issue a wrong drug—for instance, a pharmacist-provided a patient with chemotherapy medication against arthritis (Gabler, 2020). The client was thus at risk since the drug was most effective when taken infrequently, but she took it daily. Correspondingly, patients have a considerable duty to minimize these mistakes. Foremost, they should communicate with the pharmacist on the intrigues of their prescriptions like the drug reactions. Moreover, patients must confirm their treatment as the professional may issue them with the wrong medication. Familiarity with pills and reading instructions is an effective way of ensuring that the drugs match their illness. Lastly, they should report errors in good faith to get exchanges or prevent other patients from consuming the wrong medication due to a mix-up.
In conclusion, a career in pharmacy is vital due to its role in society. As such, pharmacists need to have adequate academic backgrounds and unique skillsets to deliver their services. They should have adequate knowledge and excellent memory to understand the context of the prescription and the effects that the drugs may have on the patient. Essentially, they are empathetic to comprehend the client’s situation. They integrate other skills like humility, patience, and kindness to positively influence patients’ perceptions. These traits help in building a long-lasting relationship between the pharmacists and the patients. As an outcome, their reputation grows. As they do so, they keep their businesses in check through ethical practices. Patients must be wary of the delivered prescriptions due to concerns of errors made by pharmacists. Due to work overload, most of them have stressful moments that hinder their clarity in service provision and may worsen a client’s situation.
References
Gabler, E. (2020, January 31). Pharmacists Make Mistakes. You Can Protect Yourself. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/health/pharmacists-medication-mistakes.html.
Khan, F. U., Waqas, N., Ihsan, A. U., Khongorzul, P., Wazir, J., Gang, W., … & Xiaohui, Z. (2019). Analysis of the Qualities Matching New Classification of Clinical Pharmacist. Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 81(1), 2-10.
Rowland, T. (2020, January 14). Our Picks for the Top 10 Traits of Highly Effective Pharmacists. https://blog.soliant.com/careers-in-healthcare/our-picks-for-the-top-10-traits-of-highly-effective-pharmacists/.