Q: I am so thankful for the care my pharmacist has given to me and my family at my neighbourhood drug store over the years. I was surprised to have met another friendly pharmacist who spent a lot of time going over my medications as I was leaving the hospital a couple of weeks ago after I had a heart attack. She answered my questions about my medicines and taught me how to use a new inhaler. I did not realize that there were pharmacists in places other than pharmacies! So, this leads me to ask, where do pharmacists work outside of drug stores and what do they do?
To answer your question this week, I’ve enlisted the help of hospital pharmacist Dr. Bradley Adams (BScPharm, PharmD):
Pharmacists can be found in many different places outside of your local drug store and we are always working with our patients, each other, and other health-care workers to make sure you are getting the safest and the best care possible. People are probably most familiar with a community pharmacist, the kind who you will find at your local drug store, as the Canadian Pharmacists Association says about 7 in 10 pharmacists work in this setting. What is less known, and as you have discovered, is pharmacists are crucial parts of health-care teams far outside of the walls of a drug store. I’m happy to be able to talk about these possibly lesser-known areas in today’s Ask Your Pharmacist column.
Even though we may not always be at your bedside during your hospital stay, hospital pharmacists like the one you had the chance to meet, are involved during most moments of your hospital journey in some way. We work beside many great healthcare professionals including pharmacy technicians and assistants, who are responsible for the preparation steps involved with many specialized medications while under our supervision.
When you come to the hospital, your pharmacy team plays an important role in making sure the care you were receiving before you were in hospital will continue. This happens by collecting a history of the medications you were taking and piecing together information from your home pharmacy, yourself, family members, and even caregivers. Once this list is approved (and changed, when necessary) by your hospital doctor, it is then sent to the pharmacy team to be looked at even further before your medication eventually makes it to your unit where it will be given to you. As part of a large healthcare team, the hospital pharmacist is very involved in helping to choose the best treatment options for you from the very beginning.
During your stay, your hospital pharmacists continue to be involved in any medication changes that take place and are available to answer questions that come from our patients, like yourself, and even from other healthcare workers. We also play an important role in making sure the necessary forms are filled out for your insurance before you leave the hospital, if necessary, and we will even make suggestions for changes or extra tests that may be needed.
When the time comes for you to leave the hospital, your pharmacist is there to answer any questions that come up, and whenever possible, your pharmacist will even stop by and talk about your medications along with any changes that may have taken place during your stay. We will even relay important information to your home drug store so that you can continue to get the same great care that you always have. Your hospital pharmacy team is always working hard to make sure you have the safest medications that work for you.
Pharmacists also play an important part outside of the jobs listed above. Here in New Brunswick alone, we have pharmacists doing very hard work as teachers (for future and current pharmacists, as well as other health-care professionals), as researchers, as primary care and community health team collaborators, as insurance specialists, and so much more. I am so lucky to have so many great pharmacy professionals to look up to here in our province!
Dr. Bradley Adams (BScPharm, PharmD) is a graduate of the Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy and the Memorial University of Newfoundland School of Pharmacy. He is primarily a hospital pharmacist practicing at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton, NB. His opinions expressed in this column are published for educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as a diagnosis, treatment or as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.