A Pharmacist's Role

Spencer Simister

PharmD Candidate Class of 2020

University of Utah College of Pharmacy

APPE Rotation Block 3 – Bulloch Drug

Counseling Editorial

Counsel to counsel

When I was first embarking on my career in the world of pharmacy, one of my close friends jokingly told me that they hoped I knew how to count to thirty. This joke – obviously stemming from the popular thought that community pharmacists are nothing more than glorified pill counters – fails to take into account the several other responsibilities that these pharmacists also have.  Such responsibilities include ensuring that standard business operations are maintained, managing other staff members, purchasing product, dealing with insurance companies, keeping the inventory in check, watching out for recalls, verifying the safety and accuracy of prescriptions, staying up to date with new medications and guidelines, ensuring that the pharmacy is kept up to code, and so much more. It sometimes honestly seems like a miracle that somewhere between all those responsibilities, a patient is able to drop off a prescription and have it filled and ready to pick up within a (usually) reasonable amount of time. Of all the many responsibilities of a community pharmacist, however, I personally feel that one of the greatest and most important is our charge to counsel patients on their medications.

As many (and hopefully all) of us know, counseling involves a pharmacist providing individualized and pertinent information to a patient or their representative regarding their medications and overall health. In many ways, it could be seen as an elegant art form, as it requires the pharmacist to sift through the vast amounts of knowledge that they have amassed through their years of study and practice, ultimately summarizing it all into a few concise take-away points that are so simple, a 5^th grader could understand them. Such points could include when or how to take a medication, what benefits the patient can expect from the medication, what adverse effects may be expected, what adverse effects the patient should report or take action on, and if there are any specific storage requirements for their medication. Because of its intricate complexity, counseling is one of the best ways for a community pharmacist to practice at the top of their license, as it provides them with an opportunity to apply their pharmacological and clinical knowledge in their own area of practice. In spite of the great opportunity that counseling is for both a pharmacist and a patient, however, I all too often find myself hearing from people in my community that they have either minimal or no experience receiving counsel from a pharmacist on their medications.