What do pharmacists do?
I know pharmacists dispense medication and find any prescription errors I’m just confused as to why they have to go through 8 years of school to do that. I was recently able to shadow a pharmacist and it seems as if the computer will alert the pharmacist if a medication prescription has an error in it. It also seems like the pharmacy techs are also able to count pills and because the computer flags any prescription errors the pharmacy tech could probably also fix any errors.
However I’m sure pharmacists do more than what I saw in my couple of hours of shadowing I’m just not sure what else they do. It would be kind of messed up if they went through 8 years of school just to count pills and have a computer do the rest so I imagine a pharmacist has responsibilities that goes beyond that.
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In the UK, pharmacists are able to talk to people and recommend over the counter treatments for everyday ailments, or signpost them to other services. They can prescribe some medication without needing to see a GP, give emergency contraception, take your blood pressure.
Because the waiting lists for GP appointments can be so long, pharmacists can see patients for minor stuff like ear infections, UTIs etc, for more serious cases they’ll advise you see a GP. this in-community care is part of a scheme to get people to stop asking for doctors appointments for ailments that can be treated over the counter, to save those appointments for more serious cases.
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