AJP readers vote for general service and disease state management pharmacist role followed by GP pharmacist within community pharmacy
At PSA19 conference this year, Emeritus Professor Charlie Benrimoj gave a presentation on the opportunities available for community pharmacists within a health hub pharmacy model.
This includes pharmacists branching out into specialisations.
E/Prof Benrimoj shared the top 10 emerging professional roles within community pharmacy.
- General Service Pharmacist: For Community Pharmacy Agreement service providers, covering clinical interventions; general, diabetes and pain MedsCheck; Home Medicines Reviews; and additional new programs.
- Adherence Pharmacist: Programs for new and continuing medications.
- Point of Care Pharmacist: Prevention, wellness programs and detection (point of care testing).
- Self-Care Pharmacist: Triage to general practice and emergency departments; minor ailments; pharmacy only products.
- Vaccination and Immunisation Pharmacist: Influenza and travel vaccine administration.
- Paediatric Pharmacist: Infant care, baby care and mother care.
- Aged Care Pharmacist: Ambulatory elderly patients; sessional basis to care centres; and domiciliary visits.
- Disease State Management Pharmacist: Diabetes; cardiovascular disease; asthma; mental health; single or co-pathologies.
- GP Pharmacist within Community Pharmacy: Sessional basis to GP surgeries.
- Medication Safety Pharmacist: Pharmacoepidemiology; data analysis of health records and dispensing data
“Essentially what we’re doing is promoting roles that would have increased health outcomes in people,” E/Prof Benrimoj told AJP.
“The way of picking these roles, what I did was look at where the market would be and more importantly where the trends in primary healthcare are.”
We asked AJP readers: Which of these professional roles you would be interested in pursuing?
591 voters made the following selections:
- General Service Pharmacist (CI, MedsCheck, HMR) – 38%
- Disease State Management Pharmacist – 38%
- GP Pharmacist within Community Pharmacy – 37%
- Aged Care Pharmacist – 33%
- Medication Safety Pharmacist – 31%
- Vaccination and Immunisation Pharmacist – 29%
- Point of Care Pharmacist (prevention, detection) – 28%
- Self-Care Pharmacist (minor ailments, triage) – 26%
- Paediatric Pharmacist – 20%
- Adherence Pharmacist – 17%
- I don’t believe these roles should exist – 11%
- None of the above – 9%
What readers said:
I’m disappointed to see only 16% of pharmacists are interested in adherence. Improving adherence to medicines is a fundamental role for pharmacists and one we can make such a difference with. Influencing behaviour change is complex, but clearly beneficial to the patient (and indeed the pharmacy business). Much of my time doing HMRs is spent discussing a patient’s beliefs, attitudes and preferences to their health and medicines. My conversation is usually underpinned by the necessity-concerns framework. Why aren’t more pharmacists interested in adherence? – Debbie Rigby
Pity rural generalist pathway was not included – PeterC
With all due respect to all parties….this will become an academic (theoretical) vs real-world (business) discussion. What looks good on paper may not work very well in practise. This smacks so much of political correctness, trying to pigeon hole everything. In a very big business this structure may be workable but I would hate to be the HR manager. ” that was your job…No, I thought it was yours…..or more likely cross-over of roles for same patient” In a small business there will be so many part-time staff to contend with and following up with this miriad of people out of their work hours. I’m sure others will see many other areas which will be un-workable at the coal face. – Jim Tsaoucis
Please don’t make it so complex and avoid placing professional service pharmacists into neat and tidy boxes. This may suit some but it’s not practical or commercial. – Bruce Annabel
I look at that list and in the pharmacy I’m in which has a large emphasis on professional services, all of our pharmacists perform multiple services that fit into several of those categories. I think you can’t be a good pharmacist nowadays and just dispense medication. Nor would you want to – some of the most rewarding parts of my job is when I can directly connect with a customer in a deeper way and help them with their health condition. – Jacqueline Hagidimitriou
