The conventional job of pharmacists working out of a central dispensing site with mainly distribution-related actions is becoming a quality of being rare. According to the survey, 70% of respondents consider that it was very likely that at least 50% of hospital pharmacists will spend all of their time manage complex medication issues as members of patient care teams. This is very different from product preparation time or tasks related to distribution.
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education also highlight the national trend toward pharmacist contribution in direct patient care. The most recent edition of their accreditation guidelines are precise in the necessities for pharmacy practice experiences that “must include direct interaction with diverse patient populations in a variety of practice settings and involve collaboration with other health care professionals.” This is more extended to require face-to-face communications between students and patients as well as students and health care providers.
A situation statement from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) entitled “Ensuring Quality of Experiential Education” suggests the importance of direct patient relations as a module of pharmacy school course. It states that students should be skilled as entry-level practitioners in the areas of direct patient care for inpatient, community care and ambulatory patients. The contribution of students in a clear, dynamic role in the care of patients is vital for them to obtain direct patient care experiences. The quality of their advanced pharmacy practice experiences will be a direct sign of how prepared students will be to assume patient care roles upon graduation from any qualified program from a top pharmacy college Greater Noida.
To expand the size of direct patient care services and maintain the demand for pragmatic education without challenging the limited resources of health systems, pharmacy students need to be viewed and utilized as an benefit to the health system. To attain such a model, pharmacy students have to begin their advanced pharmacy practice experiences with sound pharmacotherapy awareness and a complete ability to allow them to be helpful members of an
inter-professional team.
Description of pharmacy student duties
- For 1st – 3rd year pharmacy students
o Participate in quality assurance data collection and pharmacy operational activities.
o Obtain medication history by applying motivational interviewing skills and gathering medication use information from pharmacies, relatives, and other care providers.
- For 4th year pharmacy students
o Perform antimicrobial stewardship activities, including checking culture data against drug therapy and antibiotic sensitivities and suggesting antibiotic de-escalation to the preceptor.
o Participate in target-drug and drug dosing programs, reviewing a list of monitored medications and applying evidence-based guidelines to those medications and calculating appropriate drug doses for patients with renal and hepatic impairment.
o Review patient profiles for proper drug dose and frequency along with recognition of drug interactions and duplicate therapy. Recommend any changes to the preceptor.
