Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

Pharmacy is in a unique position, as both a provider of information and a collector of funds for prescribed goods. Despite always seeming to rate fairly highly on the list of most trusted professions, maintaining this trust can be difficult when trying to recommend to an elderly patient that there may be something a bit better (even though it may be a little more expensive) for their cough than senega and ammonia.

This means more than just liaising with doctors. It is liaising with nurses, podiatrists, dieticians, community educators just to name a few. And let's not forget the community and general public, for whom this service should benefit.

Pharmacy desperately needs to reach out to these people and let them know what level of service we as a profession are capable of providing. Something a little more than a promotional campaign.

Where possible, and where resources exist, we need to roll our sleeves up and get involved in community projects and activities. The local asthma group, the diabetes educators, glaucoma support groups need to be contacted and support offered or given to their programs.

I'm sure many people reading this will be thinking yes (pull out calculator, crunch numbers, um and ah over figures) and then decide that you couldn't really be bothered after all.

However, the experience of making a brief speech to glaucoma sufferers about how their eye drops work, or explaining to asthma sufferers why they need to rinse their mouth out after using inhaled corticosteroids may turn non-customers into potential customers - "no one had ever told me that before". Furthermore, it may re-ignite the spark that was present when one entered the pharmacy profession.

It can help to fine tune counseling skills, it may force you to revise pharmacology and mode of actions of some medications, and a tremendous way to show to the other health care professionals your finely tuned skills that can be of benefit in a domiciliary medication management review.

Such projects may qualify for government/Guild grants, and failing this sort of financial support, drug companies with an active interest in the area may follow through with some sponsorship money to help cover costs.

It can be done without paperwork (a big bonus in this industry), it helps to portray the profession as a source of information that may translate into sales, and I'm sure it could be a hell of a lot of fun.