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Letters to the Editor
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The profession
Professionals need to understand what pharmacists can offer
From Mr J. Kaye
I am currently doing my preregistration year in pharmacy at an NHS hospital,
where I spent a morning shadowing a dietitian. I had the impression that
other health care professionals understood that dietitians had a specific
knowledge about nutrition that they did not. This was apparent by the way
patients were referred to the dietitian and in the way doctors and nurses
appeared to take interest in what the dietitian had to say.
I believe that a problem with the pharmacy profession is that other health
care professionals think that they already have sufficient knowledge about
the use of medicines, and so do not see a pharmacist’s knowledge
as something unique. Nevertheless, almost all of the doctors I have worked
with do seem to have a genuine interest in the opinions of a pharmacist.
However, patients are not often referred to a pharmacist for expert advice
on their treatment, and pharmacists often have to work around other health
care professionals as opposed to with them.
In summary, while I am not criticising any staff at my hospital, I am worried
that pharmacy lacks a clear and defined role. Unlike the dietitian I shadowed,
other health care professionals have blurred into our role and while, of
course, areas of expertise need to overlap, I think that pharmacy is being
overlooked, with many health care professionals not really understanding
what we do or can uniquely offer.
I hope things will change in this respect. Then, like the dietitian, health
care professionals will sometimes feel the need to ask for a pharmacist’s
opinion as opposed to it always being pharmacists offering their opinions.
However, I fear that the new pharmacy contract will turn pharmacy into
a jack of all trades and a master of none: before we widen our roles, we
first need to define them.
Jonathan Kaye
Loughton,
Essex |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal