Clinical pharmacists: Bridging the gap between patients and physicians

Abstract

The clinical pharmacy has spread out drastically in terms of its professional services throughout the past few years. The clinical pharmacist become a crucial element of healthcare team and promotes patient care by interacting with physician and patient. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of clinical pharmacists in various departments. It concludes that the features of interactions occurring between clinical pharmacists and physicians influence the teamwork between pharmacists and physicians and provide better patient care.

An Emerging Role of Pharmacist in Pre-chemotherapy Counseling Among Breast Cancer Patients

“…In this regards, adequate information or patient counselling must be supplied in addressing potential fears or stigmas associated with chemotherapy and hence increase adherence to the given treatment [27] . On the other hand, integrating pharmacist into the primary health care system has been increasingly recognized as a means to manage complex medication needs, reduce drug costs, length of hospital stay and improve economic outcomes [25,28] . The role of pharmacist has been diversified from medication centred to patient centred care [29] .…”

“…Studies showed that pharmacist involvement was well accepted with high satisfactory score by both the patient and physicians [25,30] . In oncology setting however, the role of the pharmacist is rather in an imbalance, which deals with compounding of the drug, calculation of body surface area of patients and communication to the prescriber [26,28] . Limited activity has been focused on cancer patient-centred care.…”

“…Pharmacist has been suggested to be the ideal bridge information between physicians and patient [28] , in the current study, patient centred care via pharmacist was attempted through pre-chemotherapy counselling. It has been shown that pharmacist-led pre-chemotherapy counselling was effective in conveying chemotherapy drug related messages.…”

“…Further investigation should be carried out in this aspect to improve the counseling competencies to recognize limitation of the pharmacist-led prechemotherapy interventions. As the pharmacist is said to be the most accessible healthcare professional [25] and the ideal middle man to bridge the gap between the physician and patient [28] , its role in the oncology setting may highly contributed to positive therapeutic outcome and prevention of chemo-drug related problem.…”

Acompanhamento Farmacoterapêutico De Pacientes Atendidos Em Pronto Atendimento Em Um Hospital De Ensino

“…Grande parte dos erros de medicação é atribuída à equipe de enfermagem por atuar diretamente nas últimas etapas de preparo e administração de medicamentos 6 , no entanto o farmacêutico inserido na equipe assistencial deve detectar estes erros no início ou no meio do sistema, intervir e corrigir possíveis danos 7 . A análise da prescrição é uma das atividades atribuída ao profissional farmacêutico clínico, intervindo em situações como: reconciliação medicamentosa; forma farmacêutica, via de administração, posologia e administração inadequadas; incompatibilidades entre medicamentos; estabilidade e diluição de medicamentos inadequadas; bem como evitar que o paciente alérgico a determinado medicamento seja prescrito 8,9 . Com isso, o objetivo do estudo foi identificar e quantificar o número de intervenções farmacêuticas realizadas em pronto atendimento em um hospital de ensino.…”