May, Edition # 25, 2001

 

"Are we short of pharmacists or short of properly structured jobs?"
Last edition the challenge was given to:-

"So wipe the slate clean - start all over again.
Tell us how you would like to see pharmacy practiced."

The following is a selection of the responses received:

"Well done…I look forward to the series developing.
It may be necessary to cast the net wider for general comment.
Try the trade press or Auspharmlist…."

"I have never seen anybody address this issue regarding the job of "being a pharmacist"!
I see retail pharmacy totally out of context with the training of pharmacists and not intellectually stimulating nor rewarding.
You are not university trained so that you can "scan tampons & tissues", be on your feet all day, barely have a meal break and not being allowed to leave the premises…"

"The career path ends with owning your own pharmacy which further constrains you into being a "glorified shopkeeper". The only positive aspect to pharmacy is that it is a good cash flow business in comparison to other professionals who need to render memoranda of costs and disbursements and wait for payment."

"Pharmacy obtains a lot of it's cash flow from other goods sold in the pharmacy such as photographic, cosmetics, general specials and complementary medicines (however pharmacists have a role in this). Only the dispensary component really comes under pharmacy remuneration."

A definition of a professional pharmacist

Before taking on the task of reviewing the job of a pharmacist, it is important to have an agreed definition of the position under review.

It is a pharmacist, which by definition is a person able to be registered to practice as a pharmacist.That is set in law, albeit rather ancient, through the Pharmacy Acts.

The practice of a pharmacist is defined by the market place to provide a service as a result of a demand for particular knowledge. The knowledge is obtained from a university course designed to deliver pharmacists capable of meeting the demand for knowledge in the area of pharmacotherapies.

The question then is..
Do we utilise this knowledge in the best way possible way to meet the health care industry of the 21st century?

Consider this…
The ability to forecast the future is paramount to the teaching of pharmacists.Students commencing their study in 2001, will not graduate until 2006 and will not become experienced practitioners until 5-10 years after that.
They will then not be in a leadership position in the profession until maybe 2015. They will not be in leadership positions in the profession until at least 2015.

The question then is what is the appropriate education for pharmacists as it will be practiced in 15 years time?

…and this..
The NCP Review Final Report (Wilkinson February 2000) points to the need for community pharmacy practice to keep up with the health care trends in the next decade ahead, rather than being modeled on the past. It states-

"They (the restrictions) do not help to keep the shape of the community pharmacy industry abreast of current and likely future trends in consumer need and demand for pharmacy services, including:

· The ongoing popularity with consumers of "one-stop" shop medical centres containing a range of health care professionals under one roof,

· The development and expansion of care and multi-campus aged care nursing home and hostel facilities, which lend themselves to either on-site dispensaries or the contracting in of specialist pharmacy services not always provided readily by orthodox community pharmacies' ; and

· Specialist health care facilities such as Aboriginal Medical Services, which could also sustain their own dispensary facilities."

Consider how professional is the practice of pharmacy against definitions of professionals. Try this…
"A person involved in work, which is predominantly intellectual and varied in character (as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance."

Judgement, discretion, intellectual and not routine or mechanical??

How does your daily routine match up? Are there moments of a mechanical routine nature in your work? Maybe the businessman watching cash flows has to exercise judgement and discretion, but that is not a professional pharmacist, it is a professional entrepreneur!

So let us have some more comment, before launching into the review proper.
It at least is narrowing doWn to the following:
1) The tasks which are performed and the challenge this gives to intellectual capacity
2) The way in which it is paid to properly compensate for the training necessary 3) The place where the profession is practiced
4) The legal framework needed to protect the consumer from fraudulent or unprofessional conduct.
Remember…

"The only way to understand the future is to have the courage to start living in it!"

Start now!
Send us your thoughts and have your say in moulding the future.
Ends

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