Community Pharmacy
Pharmacists are the drug experts. Community pharmacists are supposed to be the most accessible health professional to the community, as they are available to present personalized advice about health and medicine. Prior to the dispensing process, the community pharmacist provides a clinical review of prescribed medications to ensure the therapies are appropriate. Community pharmacy, also recognized as retail pharmacy, is the most common type of pharmacy that allows the public access to their medications and advice about their health.
Most community pharmacies have a commercial store with a arrangement of medicinal goods only available with a prescription and those with that can be purchased without prescription, over-the-counter.
Role of the Community Pharmacist
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Processing prescriptions: checking the prescription from the doctor and preparing the medication for the patient.
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Pharmacist may offer consultation services for the management of complex diseases
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Inspection for drug interactions: making sure that the medications and doses are suitable for the patient considering their co-morbidities and other medicinal history.
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Dispensing medications includes labeling the medication appropriately with instructions how to use medicine and their respective side effects.
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Ensure no expired medicine in pharmacy by doing scheduled expiry activity in pharmacy.
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Authentic advice: serve patients to understand their health and medicines and giving appropriate advice.
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Counseling of healthy lifestyle: supporting patients to make healthier choices, increase their physical activity, eating more nutritious food, exercising more often or stopping smoking.
The community pharmacist plays a vital patient safety role when it comes to ensuring that patients properly understand their medications. Community pharmacists are ready to provide education and counseling to patients to address questions they may have regarding factors such as dosing, administration, storage, potential side effects, and how to taper medications for acute events. Undoubtedly community pharmacists are an invaluable resource for supporting public health initiatives.
