Pharmacy Awareness Month is the perfect time to celebrate pharmacists’ expertise and the important role they play in delivering quality care to patients! Many people are unaware of the many places where pharmacists make a difference in the health care of Canadians. Pharmacists are the most accessible health professionals and are counted on for advice on their prescription, non-prescription and herbal treatments. Understanding how medications work, adverse effects to watch for, and interactions between medications are some of the areas where pharmacists educate patients. In addition, pharmacists advise on vaccinations as well administering them and provide consultation services in helping people quit smoking.
What many people don’t know is the areas of specialization that some pharmacists have developed, such as diabetes education, women’s health, geriatric specialization, oncology, auto-immune diseases, and more. Pharmacists work in hospitals, family health teams, the pharmaceutical industry and in academia doing research and educating students. As health professionals, pharmacists are dedicated to being life long learners. As part of their licence to practice pharmacy, each pharmacist must maintain a learning portfolio of all their educational activities and establish annual learning goals. Most pharmacists graduating today, have had 7-8 years of university education along with a year of internship prior to writing their licensing exams.
The pharmacists at Charlton Health are proud to service our patients and welcome your questions.