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.
In: Other
I think a decent analogy is to an airline pilot. These days a computer on a commercial airplane can fly the entire route from takeoff to landing. Yet there are still highly trained pilots on board. What do they do?
They oversee the operation of the airplane and are there to handle anything that might go wrong. They can recognize those edge cases where the computers get things wrong (which they do) and are ultimately those in charge and responsible for the aircraft.
Pharmacists are sort of like those pilots. The computers can recognize some problems with prescriptions, like dosages that are completely unreasonable, but not everything that a patient technically can take is a prescription that makes sense, or is in their best interests. That judgment is something computers really can’t do.
Furthermore pharmacists have a patient-facing role in that they advise and instruct the patient on how to take their medications. That way you avoid people spritzing their neck with their inhalers, or taking their blood pressure meds just whenever they feel like it.
Latest Answers