Pharmacists play a crucial role in helping patients feel better and get well as soon as possible. Patients benefit from pharmacists being part of their healthcare teams because pharmacists are medication specialists. A pharmacist can improve adherence to medications. Culture is an important factor that can affect a patient’s ability to take a medication. They are culturally sensitive healthcare providers who communicate effectively. Some of these issues include diet, lifestyle, transportation, and language barriers.

Pharmacists’ Daily Activities

Patients are treated by pharmacists, they collaborate with other health care professionals, they promote population health and they manage pharmacy systems. Here are some examples of common tasks performed by pharmacists every day. A farmaciauno.it who works in a specialized practice or other setting may perform different or additional tasks. 

Provider of patient care 

• Obtain information about a patient’s health, social history, and medications, such as prescriptions, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, herbal products, and dietary supplements. 
• Assess the patient’s health, medications, risk factors, health literacy, and access to medications and other care. 
• Assist patients in choosing safe OTC medications, herbal products, and dietary supplements. 
• Together with other healthcare professionals, the patient, and the caregivers, develop a medication treatment plan. 
• Prepare and dispense prescriptions, ensuring that dosages and medications are accurate and safe. 
• Identify and prevent harmful drug interactions with other medications, foods, vitamins, supplements, and health conditions. 
• Educate patients and caregivers about proper medication use, side effects, dosage, proper medication storage, and drug-free treatments (e.g., exercise). 
• Follow the patient’s response to a medication treatment plan and make adjustments as necessary. 
• Use point-of-care tests to assess the health status of patients (e.g., tests for influenza, strep, COVID-19). 
• Vaccines can prevent certain diseases (e.g., flu vaccines). 
• Wellness services such as smoking cessation and blood pressure monitoring can be provided. 
• Reduce or eliminate acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) pain while minimizing side effects, addiction, and overdosage risks. 

Medical Expertise and Population Health 

• Utilise and share expertise about how drugs affect the body (pharmacodynamics*) and how they are metabolized by the body (pharmacokinetics*).  
• Using genetic information to develop and select drugs and dosages suited to a patient’s genetic makeup (pharmacogenomics*). 
• Assist other health professionals and stakeholders with a variety of medication-related issues. 
• Determining which medications, treatments, and products will best serve a particular patient population in a particular setting (e.g., a hospital). 
• Stay informed of new medications on the market, related products (e.g., digital health devices), and changes in health care systems. 
• enhance patient outcomes. 
• Monitoring, interpreting, and verifying lab and test results for various medical conditions. 
• Ensure that antibiotics are used appropriately to prevent disease transmission in patients or populations (*antibiotic stewardship). 

Management of Pharmacy 

• To ensure patients have access to the right medication at the right time, develop and maintain pharmacy procedures, protocols, inventories, and disaster response plans. 
• Based on a patient’s health plan or insurance, determine the most affordable medication options. 
• Maintain a permanent record of all medication treatment plans in order to improve patient care over time, measure outcomes and workload, and meet pharmacy documentation requirements. 
• Instruct and supervise student pharmacists and pharmacy residents to improve their knowledge, skills, and understanding of the profession. 
• The supervisor supervises, trains, and coordinates the activities of pharmacy technicians and other support staff.