by David » Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:37 pm
Hi Kim. I don't want to make too much of an issue about pharmacy careers, but you made several statements which aren't entirely accurate.
Historically, and still true today, pharmacist that work in a community pharmacy setting pretty much "pour and lick" as you alluded to. However, recent legislation, and anticipated new legislation, at both the state and federal levels are resulting in dramatic changes within the profession. It is expected that in the future physicians will make a diagnosis and determine the patient to be in need of drug therapy. They then send this "blank prescription" to a pharmacist where he/she will figure out based on the patients disease state, genetic profile, other medications being used, etc ... what medication(s), dose, dosing frequency, and route of administration to give. This is EXACTLY what pharmacist working in clinical (hospital) settings are already doing. And monitoring patients drug therapy is another major role pharmacist play.
Much of the dispensing role is being delegated to pharmacy technicians, freeing up the pharmacist to get more involved in therapeutic decision making. I would like to point out that some states have already passed laws that allow pharmacist to intervene and overide prescriptions by a physician.
As for the link between science and health care for pharmacist, genetic variability in drug metabolising enzymes, signal transduction proteins, dna promoter regions, etc ... will play an increasing role in therapeutic decision making for pharmacist. The future of the profession will be drastically different than the past. This is already apparent from the recent elimination of the BS degree from pharmacy programs, resulting in only Pharm.D. graduates hence forth.
" For some people, pharmacist can be a terribly boring job."
I had the same opinion of working in a lab, seeing the same 8 or 9 faces per day, writing/reviewing papers, preparing/giving talks, applying for SBIR grants, etc ...
Regards, David