Pharmacists are highly-trained and skilled healthcare professionals
who perform various roles to ensure optimal health outcomes for
their patients. Pharmacists are also often small-business owners,
owning the pharmacy in which they practice. This unique dichotomy
is often the subject of debate within the profession in part due
to the perception of pharmacists as "common shopkeepers"
by many in the community.Pharmacists are represented internationally
by the International Pharmaceutical Federation . They are represented
at the national level by professional organisations such as the
Royal Pharmaceutical the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and
American Pharmacists AssociationSeparation of prescribing from dispensingIn
most jurisdictions pharmacists are regulated separately from physicians.
That is, the legislation stipulates that the practice of prescribing
must be separate from the practice of dispensing. These jurisdictions
also usually specify that only pharmacists may supply scheduled
pharmaceuticals to the public, and that pharmacists cannot form
business partnerships with physicians or give them "kickback"
payments.In the minority of jurisdict, doctors are allowed to dispense
drugs themselves and the practice of pharmacy is integrated with
that of the physician.The reason for the majority rule is the high
risk of a conflict of interest. Otherwise, the physician has a financial
self-interest in "diagnosing" as many conditions as possible,
and in exaggerating their seriousness, because he can then sell
more medications to the patient. Such self-interest directly conflicts
with the patient's interest in obtaining cost-effective medication.
Community Pharmacy
A pharmacy chemist; or drugstore in the is the place where most
pharmacists practice the profession of pharmacy. It is community
pharmacy where the dichotomy of the profession exists health professionals
who are also retailers.Community pharmacies usually consist of a
retail storefront, with a dispensary where medications are stored
and dispensed. The dispensary is subject to pharmacy legislation;
with requirements for storage conditions, compulsory texts, equipment,
etc., specified in legislation. Where it was once the case that
pharmacists stayed within the dispensary compounded/dispensed medications;
there has been an increasing trend towards the use of trained dispensary
technicians while the pharmacist spends more time communicating
with patients.There is a requirement that all pharmacies must have
a pharmacist on-duty at all times it is open. In many jurisdictions
it is also a requirement that the owner of a pharmacy must be a
registered pharmacist. This latter requirement has been revoked
in many jurisdictions, such that many retailers now include a pharmacy
as department of their store.
Hospital Pharmacy
In much the same way that hospital pharmacists have different roles
to community pharmacists, hospital pharmacies have different roles
to community pharmacies. Some pharmacists in hospital pharmacies
may have more complex clinical medication management issues whereas
pharmacists in community pharmacies often have more complex business
and customer relations issues.Unlike community pharmacies, which
are usually independently owned, hospital pharmacies can usually
be found within the premises of the hospital. Hospital pharmacies
usually stock a larger range of medications, incuding more than
would be feasible in the community setting. Traditionally, hospital
pharmacies have also prepared various injectable preparations such
as saline, total parenteral nutrition , and other drug ifusions;
but there has been a trend to outsource these unctions to specialised
pharmaceutical companies.The future of pharmacyIn the coming decades
pharmacists will become more integral parts of the health care system.
Rather than simply a dispenser of medication, pharmacists will be
paid for their cognitive skills. This paradigm shift has already
commenced in some countries, for instance pharmacists in Australia
receive remuneration from the Australian Government for conducting
comprehensive Home Medicines Reviews. Many universities are altering
their programs to increase emphacues on mental health and neurological
illness, heh psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much
wider range of health-related behaviour including healthy eating,
the doctor-patient relationship, a patient's understanding of health
information, and beliefs about illness. Health psychologists may
be involved in public health campaigns, examining the impact of
illness or health policy on quality of life or in research into
the psychological impact of health and social care.
Industrial and organizational psychology
Involved with the application of psychology to the world of business,
commerce and the function of organizations, industrial and organisational
psychology focuses to varying degrees on the psychology of the workforce,
customer, and consumer, including issues such as the psychology
of recruitment, selecting employees from an applicant pool which
overall includes training, performance appraisal, job satisfaction,
work behaviour, stress at work and managementis a branch of psychology
that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain
relates to specific psychological processes. Often neuropsychologists
are employed a scientists to advance scientific or medical knowledge.
Cognitive neuropsychology is particularly concernedthe understanding
of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function.
Clinical neuropsychology is the application of neuropsychology for
the clinical management of patients with neurocognitive deficits.Social
psychologySocial psychology is the study of the nature and causes
of human social behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards
each other and how they relate h other. Social Psychology aims to
understand how we make sense of socal situations. For example, this
could involve the influence of others on an individual's behaviour
the perception and understanding of social cues, or the formation
of attitudes or stereotypes about other people. Social cognition
is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and scientific
approach to understanding social behaviour.
Criticisms of psychology
Psychology has always been a controversial discipline. Some criticisms
of psychology have been made on ethical and philosophical grounds.
Some have argued that by subjecting the human mind to experimentation
and statistical study, psychologists objectify persons. Because
it treats human beings as things, as objects that can be examined
by experiment, psychology is sometimes portrayed as dehumanizing.
It has been argued that ultimately, quatitative psychological research
ignores or downplays what is most essential about being human.Another
common criticism of psychology concerns its fuzziness as a science.
Since it relies on "soft"methods such as statistical analyis
and questioaires, some have said, psychology is not as scientific
as it claims to be. Many believe thine which agrees on very little
about how the mind works. This criticism, however, cannot be applied
universally to psychology, as some areas within the discipline,
such as behaviorism or neuropsychology, advocate only the scientific
method. In defending their discipline, psychologists will often
point out that astronomy's claim to being a science is also open
to argument because it's theories are largely untestable, being
only open to observation Topics in psychologyAlthough in principle,
psychology aims to explain all aspects of thought and behaviour,
some topics have generated particular interest, either due to their
perceived importance, their ease of study or popularity. Many of
the concepts studied by professional psychology stem from the day-to-day
psychology used by most people and learnt through experience. This
is known as folk psychology to distinguish it from psychological
knowledge developed through formal study and investigation. The
extent to which folk psychology should be used as a basis for understanding
human experience is controversial, although theories that are based
on everyday notions of the mind have been among some of the most
successful.
pharmacits pharmacy products vitamin health products medical products
|