World Pharmacist Day 2020: Interesting Facts about Pharmacists and Pharmacy

World Pharmacist Day is celebrated every year on 25 September to promote awareness about the significance and role of a pharmacist in improving health everywhere in the world. On this day, the fundamental aim is to exhibit pharmacists and their positive health effects. The theme of World Pharmacist Day 2020 is “Transforming global health“.

Pharmacists give considerably more than medications. Pharmacists are expertly trained and under-used. Pharmacists work in groups within nearly all healthcare settings and a few pharmacists never contact a prescription yet rather evaluate patients and, through collaborative agreements, prescribe them meds to treat their illnesses.

World Pharmacist Day: History

World Pharmacist Day was made by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Council at the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Istanbul, Turkey in 2009. 25 September is picked as World Pharmacist Day because on this date FIP appeared in 1912. The fundamental purpose of this day is to encourage the role and activities of the pharmacist in improving health and in all aspects of the world.

Who is a Pharmacist?

They are healthcare experts who practice in pharmacy. They are associated with all the medicines delivered to the patients and sell medicated over the counter. Likewise, the pharmacist clarifies about the medication recommended by the doctor. To become a pharmacist the person in question ought to have a degree of pharmacy with the goal that they can comprehend the biochemical mechanisms of medications uses of drugs, therapeutic roles, side effects, potential drug interactions, and monitoring parameters.

Responsibilities/Activities of a Pharmacist:

• Auditing medications and teaming up with patients and other healthcare suppliers to guarantee ideal treatment for every patient’s condition

• Defining therapeutic objectives with patients

• Auditing prescriptions as a suitable treatment

• Instructing patients and other healthcare professionals on the organization, uses, and impacts of meds, drug incompatibilities, and contraindications

• Instructing patients on selection and use concerning non-prescription medication

• Leading or taking an interest in research into the advancement of new medications, improvement of patient/customer results, or pharmacoeconomic evaluation of drug treatment

• Planning and testing new drug products

• Organizing clinical investigations of new medications

• Creating data materials on the uses and properties of specific drugs

• Giving data services about drug products and pharmacotherapy

• Assessing the labeling, packaging, and advertising of drug products

Pharmacists oversee and may likewise perform technical tasks, for example, compounding as well as dispensing pharmaceutical products, keeping up medicine profiles of patients and registries of toxins, narcotics, and controlled medications, guaranteeing appropriate storage of vaccines, serums, biologicals, and other pharmaceutical products and requesting/keeping up a stock of pharmaceutical supplies.

23 Interesting Facts about Pharmacists and Pharmacy

History

1. Coca-Cola was concocted by a pharmacist named John Pemberton. He carried the jug of the new product down the road to Jacob’s Pharmacy where it was examined and articulated “excellent” and placed on sale for 5 cents a glass as a soft fountain drink.

Another pharmacist, Charles Alderton, discovered Dr. Pepper. Pepsi was likewise created by a pharmacist, just like Vernor’s Ginger Ale by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor.

2. The primarily licensed pharmacist set up shop in the French Quarter. Louis Dufilho Jr. of New Orleans became American’s first licensed pharmacist in the mid-1800s. Preceding at that point, you didn’t require a license to become a pharmacist.

3. The global pharmaceuticals market is worth $300 billion.

4. Benjamin Franklin was a pharmacist, while Agatha Christie was a pharmacy technician.

5. Lipitor is the best-selling drug ever. It was presented in 1997 and its patent expired in 2011, making about $125 billion.

6. Insulin is one of the most widely recognized meds that cause adverse events.

7. Hydrocodone/acetaminophen is the most regularly recommended medicine in the United States. Lisinopril is No. 2, as of 2014.

8. The most costly drug is Glybera at a wholesale cost of $1.21 million every year. It is a gene therapy that reestablishes lipoprotein lipase enzyme action in those with familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency. Just 1 million patients have this very uncommon condition.

Job Description

9. According to Census information gathered in 2011, women make up somewhat more than fifty percent of all full-time pharmacists.

10. They work for the most part for drugstores and pharmacies, yet medical clinics and hospitals may employ their pharmacists to dispense drugs legitimately to individuals out of luck.

11. Pharmacists ordinarily do the following:

• Teach other healthcare practitioners about proper drug treatments for patients;
• Keep records and do other administrative tasks;
• Oversee the work of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in training;
• Work with insurance agencies to guarantee that patients get the meds they require;
• Complete insurance forms;
• Prompt patients about general health topics, as – exercise, diet, and overseeing pressure;
• Offer influenza shots and different vaccinations;
• Illuminate patients about potential side effects regarding taking the meds;
• Educate patients on how and when to take prescribed medication;
• Check whether prescriptions medications will associate negatively with different prescriptions which a patient is taking;
• Check guidelines from doctors on the best possible amounts of medications to provide for patients;
• Fill prescriptions.

Code of Ethics

12. It is a complete report that documents the core ethical principles that direct a pharmacist’s ethical duty to society and patients.

13. Some of the standards of the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians are:

• Take responsibility for your working practices;
• Be reliable and fair;
• Make the consideration of patients your first concern;
• Build up your ability and expert information;
• Urge patients to partake in decisions about their consideration;
• Show respect for other people;
• Practice your professional judgment in light of a legitimate concern for the public and patients.

Education Requirements

14. Aspiring pharmacists must finish four years of undergraduate study (some PharmD programs incorporate undergraduate coursework and are 6 years long) before accomplishing their Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree from a pharmacy school.

15. To be acknowledged into a Pharm.D. program, you should initially finish a pre-professional track which is generally 2 years long and remembers scientific courses for:

• Physiology;
• Applied drug information;
• Anatomy;
• Immunopharmacology;
• Physics;
• Pharmaceutical calculations;
• Chemistry;
• Biostatistics;
• Biology;
• Biopharmaceuticals.

16. Laboratory work is common in these programs. Additionally, you will learn professional ethics, business management, and public health concepts.

17. Most students have a bachelor’s degree or 3 years of college experience after entering pharmacy school. If you want to apply to a Pharm.D. program, you should focus on procuring high grades in undergraduate essential courses, for example,

• Statistics;
• Calculus;
• Biology;
• Human physiology;
• Human anatomy;
• Biochemistry;
• Organic chemistry;
• General chemistry.

18. If you are graduating from secondary school and you want to become a pharmacist, you can apply for an “early assurance” or a “0-6” program.

19. Pharmacists who want to work in a particular field of pharmaceutics regularly complete a residency program enduring 1 to 2 years.

20. Pharmacists with aspirations to run their pharmacy ought to likewise get a master’s degree in business management.

Salary

21. In the United States, the median annual pay for pharmacists is $128,716. It is fundamental to comprehend that the median salary isn’t normal, notwithstanding, it is the mid-point salary for this profession.

22. Nuclear pharmacists (a specialty of making radioactive materials for nuclear medicine procedures and nuclear imaging) are the most generously compensated, acquiring a normal pay of $66.31 every hour, while staff pharmacists at retail are the least paid, procuring a normal pay of $58.35 every hour.

23. In 2018, pharmacists made sure about the 21st spot among the 100 best-paying jobs in the US. As indicated by a study, around 60% of pharmacists said their outstanding burdens expanded as well as their feelings of anxiety.