Role of Community Pharmacist

Community Pharmacy

An establishment that is privately owned & whose function is to serve society's needs both for drug products and pharmaceutical services.

A community pharmacy also known as a retail pharmacy, drug outlet, retail drug outlet, retail drug shop, or chemist, is a healthcare facility that provides good pharmaceutical services to a specific community. It is the most common type of Pharmacy that allows the public to have access to their drugs and they can get advice about the proper use of their drugs, and get advice about their health, they also sell medicines based on prescriptions or when legally permitted without prescriptions. A community pharmacy can be owned by an individual or corporately owned called a chain pharmacy.

Community Pharmacist

According to the WHO:

1. Community pharmacists are the health professionals most accessible to the public. They supply medicines in accordance with a prescription or sell them without a prescription when they are legally permitted and also counsel the patients when dispensing the drugs. 
2. The community pharmacist is directly involved in the decision of selection of effective, safe, and economical medicines use. The possible introduction of community pharmacists to the common man is a Hybrid of professionals and businessmen.
3. The best-educated person in the community is available for the general public to guide them about their health.

ALSO READ: Role of Pharmacist in Emergency Department

A community Pharmacist is a Pharmacist who owns or works in a Community Pharmacy either individually owned or Chain (corporately owned). A Community Pharmacist will;

• Counsel patients at the time of Dispensing drugs
• Provide drug information to healthcare professionals, patients, and the general public
• Participate in health promotion programs.
• Maintain links with other professionals in primary healthcare.
• Management and monitoring of long-term conditions like diabetes
• Give vaccinations
• Conduct drug reviews
• Help people with lifestyle changes like giving up smoking, altering diets to make them healthier
• Advise on sexual matters

Role of Community Pharmacist

Daily tasks undertaken by community pharmacists include:

• Clinical scrutiny of prescriptions.
• Oversight of safe dispensing processes.
• Providing patients with advice about medicines and treatments.
• Provision of public health information to patients and customers and promotion of wellness
• Signposting people to other services, self-care organizations or information resources
• Assessment and treatment for minor ailments.
• Professional oversight of the sales of OTC medicines
• Liaison with other healthcare professionals.
• Clinical review services for specific patient groups in GP practices, for example, asthma, diabetes, hypertension
• Medicines management support for practices, for example, supporting practice formulary and clinical guideline implementation, and repeat prescription management.
• Locally commissioned and enhanced services such as the supply of Prescription Medicines (POMs) under Patient Group Directions (PGDs), screening services, public health interventions, and treatments.

The skills needed to be a Community Pharmacist are;

1. Ability to provide direct patient care
2. Organizational competence
3. Ability to communicate
4. Ability to build relationships
5. Management and Adequate and sound knowledge of treatment guidelines
6. Adequate and sound drug knowledge
7. Identification and treatment of acute self-limiting illnesses
8. Monitoring chronic health conditions.