Who are we?
Pharmacist or an ‘apoteker’ as it is called in the country that I graduated from is a profession where the pharmacist plays a major role in the healthcare system hand in hand with other medical team. Often we are overlooked, behind the scenes and not obvious to the public eye, but to point out, we are the DRUG SPECIALIST or rather EXPERTS, having the knowledge of composition of drugs, including their chemical, biological and physical properties. Pharmacists in hospitals actively contribute to the overview of medication use in the healthcare facility and collaborate with a team of professionals to ensure all prescribed medications are administered in a safe and effective way.
What do we do?
- Outpatient Pharmacy Department (OPD)- Prescription based outpatient medications supply and counseling
- In-Patient Pharmacy Department (IPD)- Provide services to the wards, clinics and other units in the hospital through the unit dose system supply, “top-up” medicine stock and ready supply systems
- Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM)- Measuring specific drugs especially with narrow therapeutic at designated intervals to maintain a constant concentration in a patient’s bloodstream, thereby optimizing individual dosage regimens
- Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN)- Preparing nutrition needed by the body using a standard formula for patients who cannot or should not get their nutrition through eating
- Cytotoxic Drug Reconstitution (CDR)- Operate the CDR service providing customized chemotherapy regimens suits to every patients needs
- Manufacturing & Repacking- Manufacturing of sterile medicines and external preparation
- Ward Pharmacy- Clinical pharmacist work closely with the medical, nursing and other healthcare devoting the majority of their working day to coordinate all aspects of the pharmacy service for their wards
- Drug Information Service (DIS)- Provide healthcare practitioners with timely, evidence-based drug information to promote the safe, rational use of medications
- Store Pharmacy- Managing budget, ordering and purchasing of medicines according to the hospital’s needs
- Medication Therapy Adherence Clinic (MTAC)- Improve patient’s adherence towards medications
- Enforcement Pharmacy- Ensures that pharmaceuticals, traditional medicine and cosmetics that are available in the market are genuine in terms of registration and notification. It also acts to ensure that the link of supply and marketing, advertising of the products (including the medical services) and its usage are managed and by complying the provisions of existing legislation. This is done via enforcement and prevention activities, control of licensing, monitoring activities and consumer awareness activities to reduce the demands for unsafe or hazardous products.
Current scenario
The most frequent question from the public- Are you are doctor? Or are you a nurse? Why does no one ask, “Are you a pharmacist?” instead? It is sad that people are not aware of what we are doing. But the fact is, if you walk into the pharmacy behind the counter, it’s like a busy market with the pharmacists and assistant pharmacist running up and down to ensure that once the prescription is out with the medicine, it is complete without lack of anything. And what exactly the pharmacists do behind the counter? Filling of medicine according to the frequency and dose, some constantly topping up the medicine to ensure that medicine is enough, some over the phone discussing with the doctor the right regiment or errors made, some doing extemporaneous preparation for pediatric/child medications.
And what do the pharmacists do at the counter? Receiving and screening of the prescription, some dispensing and giving medication education, some counseling the patient, some doing the Value Added Services (VAS). And, this is only covering Outpatient Department (OPD) with the estimated total number of 800-1200 patient (Hospital Melaka) visiting OPD per day. There are many other departments that require various kinds of service and skill.
Being a pharmacist, I am passionate as it is so diversified and interesting as we are constantly solving problems and learning new things. It is especially rewarding when the doctors or nurses ask our advice as the expert in medicines. I enjoy the fact that I can help patients obtain the best from their medication treatment through an efficient delivery system.
And to conclude, that is us the PHARMACIST, CARING FOR YOU.
Bakiyarathi A/P Seridaran is a Pharmacy Enforcement Officer in Melaka. This article is published in conjunction with the World Pharmacist Day on the 25th September 2016.
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[This article belongs to The Malaysian Medical Gazette. Any republication (online or offline) without written permission from The Malaysian Medical Gazette is prohibited.]