Pharmacist's Role: Counsel to Counsel

PHARMACIST COUNSELING OF PATIENTS

                  One of the important, if not the most important, duties of the pharmacy profession is professional medication counseling.  The opportunity to work with a patient and/or caregiver one on one to provide them with the knowledge they need to understand how to take their medication, side effects to look for, cautions, etc. is so very important. 

                  I want to make my pharmacy colleagues aware of a very alarming issue which I have faced during my tenure in the state legislature.  As you all know I am the only pharmacist in the legislature which puts me in a unique position to advocate for our profession.  I want you to know that I diligently advocate for the value our profession brings to the health and welfare of our citizens whether we are discussing traditional medication treatment or cannabis medication treatment.  Here is the alarming situation: I can't tell you how many times where I have been in discussion with other legislators and/or lobbyists and have mentioned the importance of a pharmacist counseling a patient on their medication needs and have those individuals respond with "my pharmacist never counsels me on my medications".   I can't tell you how disheartening and embarrassing this is.  All I can say is that if you are a pharmacist who does not counsel your patients, shame on you!

                  I implore each of you to commit that you will take every opportunity to counsel your patients in the future.  If we want to preserve and promote our profession we have to establish what value we bring to the healthcare challenge.

Senator Evan Vickers, R.Ph

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.

We all know that the world of pharmacy has experienced drastic changes over the past several years, and such changes are likely to continue. One of the many looming threats that these changes have brought to the community pharmacy seems to be the increasing push for patients to fill their prescriptions through large mail-order pharmacies. As such, community pharmacists hoping to retain business must find a way to set themselves apart from these behemoths. While some community pharmacies do this by providing compounded medications, specialty care, MTM services, and other unique programs, one great solution that can be employed by all community pharmacies is to ensure that they offer individualized counseling to every one of the patients who fill at their pharmacy. I have personally heard many patients express that the reason they come to the pharmacy where I work is because we take the time to counsel them on their medications. Many of these patients also go on to say that they refer others to us for that same reason. Therefore, while it is true there are a thousand other things continually pulling the community pharmacist in every direction imaginable, I feel that counseling should constantly be one of their greatest priorities. We must make a greater effort to leave the counter, and go out to speak with and educate our patients. After all, almost anyone can count to thirty, but only a pharmacist can counsel.