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Qualified Pharmacists , what do they actually do ?
Centaurion
Posts: 2,060 Forum Member
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Anyone know one ?
It seems to me they just take tablets and capsules that a GP has prescribed off a shelf and into a paper bag, I could do that, anyone who can read can do that.
They don't make potions , solutions or capsules on the premises, [ at least I don'r think they do ] why do they need a university degree to be a mere purveyor of pre-packaged pharmaceuticals ?
Just wondered is all.
It seems to me they just take tablets and capsules that a GP has prescribed off a shelf and into a paper bag, I could do that, anyone who can read can do that.
They don't make potions , solutions or capsules on the premises, [ at least I don'r think they do ] why do they need a university degree to be a mere purveyor of pre-packaged pharmaceuticals ?
Just wondered is all.
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And there is a lot more to it than just simply taking pills prescribed by doctors and putting them in a paper bag.
I think pharmacists can dispense various medications across that counter for people whose condition isn't serious enough for a GP.
Amongst MANY other things they catch many of the mistakes the GP's make - and save many lives every year because of that.
Perhaps you'd happily take anything the doctor prescribes, and just chucked in a back by an unskilled and untrained shop worker - but I certainly wouldn't.
Like doctors, they do a university degree course followed by a pre-registration year, and be registered with a regulatory body (the Royal Pharmaceutical Society) before they can practise.
Wouldn't have thought so?, it's a highly paid job - and doesn't have anywhere near the same training requirements to be a doctor.
She learned a few things like what was prescription only and what wasn't, how much she could sell to a person etc. I believe a pharmacist was there at all times to be consulted over this kind of thing and they needed to know it like the back of their hand and in much greater detail including things like safe dosages, whether or not two medications when taken together could cause problems and lots more.
I kind of doubt you would have known to do that, OP.
Did your doctor notice you were pregnant?
He knew.
Doctors routinely prescribe incorrect and dangerous medications - they have pretty limited Pharmaceutical knowledge.
No. Some doctors wouldn't mind being a pharmacist, good pay, steady job, and better work-life balance
I think it's partly that the average doctor has to keep up on so much stuff that they don't have the knowledge of the meds that a specialist has, which is one of the reasons we have the specialist in the medications.
One of the things people like the op forget is that a GP might only prescribe some meds once in a blue moon, but the chemist might be dispensing them every few days, and the pharmacist will be expected to read up and remember exactly what hundreds of drugs (under all their generic and trade names), and be able to identify a vast number of medicines from the look/markings on tablets.
Having said that we changed chemist after the one we'd been using for about 20 years made about 4 major mistakes in a matter of months, and didn't seem to care about at least one of them (IIRC they dispensed the wrong strength of a restricted drug on one occasion), so it's not just doctors who can make mistakes with medicines, but the chemist should normally catch most of them.
Aye, I can imagine it, especially as the government seems determined to make sure that GP's have the same (but longer and with mandatory ovetime) sort of working hours as shift workers, a situation that I can quite easily see resulting in more major mistakes.
The are four main areas of practice for qualified pharmacists:
1) Community pharmacy
These are the most visible pharmacists. It is not just a question of putting what the doctor says in a bag. A pharmacist has to satisfy themselves that everything they dispense is safe and appropriate for a patient to take. Pharmacists often intervene to advise doctors that a drug or dose is inappropriate or unsafe and needs to be changed. The reasons for this can be prescribed overdoses, prescribing medicine which the patient is allergic to, not noticing that a patient is suffering side effects to a medicine which has been prescribed. That is just a small sample of reasons. Some pharmacists are trained to administer flu vaccine or provide the morning after pill or smoking cessation advice and products.
2) Hospital pharmacy
These pharmacist can be doing anything from checking that prescriptions are safe to making up chemotherapy drugs to give to patients or individually formulated nutritional liquids for intravenous administration to those patients who cannot take food by mouth for some reason. The patient testing, recipe devising and aseptic preparation of these products is a whole science in its own right.
Specialist hospital pharmacists also play an important part in contributing to the multi-disciplinary ward rounds with consultants.
3) Pharmaceutical industry
Again there is a whole range of jobs which a pharmacist might do in this sector. The most brilliant and scientifically gifted might be contributing to discovering new medicines, others will help with devising and running clinical trials, others might be part of the medical support team providing highly specialised information on new drugs to hospital consultants.
4) Primary care pharmacy
These pharmacists can work in Clinical Commissioning Groups or in GP practices and again perform a wide range of functions. For CCGs they would be ensuring that all medicines related aspects of what the CCG and GP practices do is in accordance with legislation. They support the implementation of NICE guidelines and the development of drug formularies and treatment guidelines. They perform audits in GP practices to ensure that prescribing is safe and in line with guidance and to reduce unsafe or unnecessary prescribing.
Some pharmacists working with GP practices have undertaken post graduate study to be qualified as independent prescribers. They often support GPs by running clinics for patients with long term conditions such as hypertension.
Other pharmacists provide medication review for older patients living in care homes - as others have mentioned they also advise care homes on the safe use of medicines.
Again, this is just a sample of what they do.
Pharmacists are very well paid so I asked her why she didn't work as one and she said she couldn't cope with the responsibility that she might kill someone by mistake.
The wonders of Google. Meet Centaurion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacist
Yes, it's a very responsible job. I have a old school friend who is now head of pharmacy at a major hospital - so in charge of thousands of drugs being dispensed every day to patients and a supply of tablets and potions worth millions of pounds. Their neck is on the line if the hospital ever runs out of anything, formulations are made up wrongly or any controlled medicines go missing.
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/pharmacy/pharmacist/hospital-pharmacist/
Their knowledge is absolutely massive. I looked into pharmacy but there was no way I would have got a good enough grade in chemistry to get in.
They don't always notice the GP's mistakes. One of my kids had open heart surgery at a week old and the top of his scar became infected when one of the stitches didn't dissolve properly. I took him to see our GP, who prescribed a course of antibiotics which I then collected from the chemist and went home. I read the label on the bottle and it contained information about the usual dosage to give. The dose for a baby my sons age (approx 3/4 weeks old) was 4 times less than what the GP had said to give him. I immediately called her and she was very apologetic and admitted her mistake, and confirmed the amount I should be giving him was 4 times less than the amount she'd prescribed. I was shocked that the pharmacist hadn't noticed the mistake.
Same with podiatry, people thinking we're doing 3 or 4 years of training just to learn how to cut toe nails. >:(
If I did pharmacy I reckon I'd want to be a hospital pharmacist