Pharmacists

Because of their knowledge of medicines and clinical therapeutics, pharmacists are suitably placed for task shifting in health care and could be further trained to undertake functions such as clinical management and laboratory diagnostics. Indeed, pharmacists have been shown to be willing, competent, and cost-effective providers of what the professional literature calls pharmaceutical care interventions; however, internationally, there is an underuse of pharmacists for patient care and public health efforts. [from abstract]

This paper reports on the first international attempt to investigate the migration intentions of pharmacy students and identify migration factors and their relationships. [from abstract]

East African countries have in the recent past experienced a tremendous increase in the volume of antiretroviral drugs. Capacity to manage these medicines in the region remains limited. Makerere University established a network of academic institutions to build capacity for pharmaceutical management in the East African region. The initiative includes institutions from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda and aims to improve access to safe, effective and quality-assured medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria through spearheading in-country capacity.

The lack of adequate national pharmacy work-force plans and the reluctance of health authorities to develop these and resource their implementation, particularly for services beyond supply chain management, may be due to the scarcity or lack of an appropriate human resource information system and evidence base. Compared with other health professions, pharmacy is severely lagging in developing an evidence base related to its education and work-force development.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for clinical, nursing & midwifery and pharmacy staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

The Pharmacist Database is a primary source of data on the size of the pharmacist workforce in Canada and contains information that is key to effective human resource planning in the health care sector. This report contains information on the supply, demographics, geographic distribution, education and employment of pharmacists in Canada. [adapted from introduction]

Many countries are introducing, expanding, or undertaking major reform of pharmacy education. Such developments must be accompanied by robust systems to assure the quality of the educational structures, processes and outcomes; the latter primarily being graduates who are competent and capable of performing safely and effectively in their practice setting and contributing to the delivery of healthcare. [from author]

Irrational drug use is contributed by many factors including care providers giving wrong drug information to patients. Dispensing staff in private pharmacy shops play a significant role in pharmaceutical management and provision of relevant information to clinicians and patients, enhancing the improvement of rational medicine use. This report offers an evaluation/staff assessment of pharmacist knowledge in a situation where they function as health workers in dispensing and prescribing medications. [adapted from introduction]

The aims of the study were to develop a proactive and responsive system for analysing future workforce needs in pharmacy and to make recommendations on how future supply and demand could be managed. [from summary]

This environmental scan of pharmacy technicians is intended to develop an accurate summary of knowledge, issues and activities relating to the roles and responsibilities, curriculum and accreditation, and certification of pharmacy technicians in Canada, from a national, provincial, territorial and international perspective. [from summary]

This is a comprehensive review of the Pharmacy Workforce in Northern Ireland undertaken between February and April 2001. It outlines themethodology and discusses the results obtained with regard to the areas of recruitment and retention, demand and models of deployment. [adapted from author]

This study aims to project the supply and demand for pharmacists between 2000 and 2010. On the supply side, these include the latest information on student intake and projected graduations. On the demand side, they include a consideration of the impact of the Third Community Pharmacy Agreement, the increasing focus on safety and quality of medicines use across the continuum of care and a host of clinical governance and Commonwealth and State/Territory government policies which impact on the demand for pharmacists. [from summary]

In light of pharmacy workforce shortages in Great Britain, the profession’s regulatory body commissioned a programme of longitudinal work to explore pharmacy career decision-making in relation to influences on career choice and intended career paths. Our objective was to gather data on career intentions that could be used to produce robust predictions about pharmacist supply. [from abstract]

This article presents analysis of data collected for the first survey from a longitudinal cohort study about pharmacy careers, focusing on the demographics of the sample and describing students' motivations for entering pharmacy school. [adapted from author]

In this second article in a series presenting data from a longitudinal cohort study about pharmacy careers, the authors discuss some key issues relating to the 2006 pharmacy graduate cohort's expected career choices and patterns of work. [adapted from author]

This final article in a series on the UK census of pharmacists focuses on the employment and work patterns of female pharmacists. [adapted from author]

This article focuses on mix and characteristics of primary care pharmacists in the UK.

The aim of this booklet is to give pharmacy students and practitioners information about patient counseling, guidance for organizing a patient counseling event, how to develop courses about counseling, the role of community pharmacists in promoting patient counseling, and guidelines for continuous professional development in patient counseling and communication skills. [adapted from author]

The first study of the Australian hospital pharmacy workforce (public and private hospitals) was undertaken in 2001. Data from this study provided a baseline and were used to estimate the future demand for hospital pharmacists. This article summarizes an update of this survey done in 2003. [adapted from author]

This document is an environmental policy scan of activity in three areas related to physicians, nurses and pharmacists: education and training initiatives; recruitment and retention and work place initiatives; and capacity to do national health human resource planning. [adapted from introduction]

This report presents global data on the distribution of pharmacists, continuing professional development systems, and migration of pharmacists. [author’s description]

This issue of Outlook explores the role of pharmacists and non-pharmacist counter staff in primary health care, with a specific emphasis on reproductive health. It also presents programs that build the capacity of pharmacists to provide expanded services, thus improving access to quality reproductive health services. [author’s description]

Over the past four decades there has been a trend for pharmacy practice to move away from its original focus on medicine supply towards a more inclusive focus on patient care. The role of the pharmacist has evolved from that of a compounder and supplier of pharmaceutical products towards that of a provider of services and information and ultimately that of a provider of patient care. This introductory handbook sets out a new paradigm for pharmacy practice. Its aim is to guide pharmacy educators in pharmacy practice, to educate pharmacy students and to guide pharmacists in practice to update their skills.

Ensuring the availability of essential drugs and using them appropriately are crucial if limited resources for health care are to be used optimally. While training of health workers throughout Zimbabwe in drug management (including stock management and rational drug use) resulted in significant improvements in a variety of drug use indicators, these achievements could not be sustained, and a new strategy was introduced based on the supervision of primary health care providers.