I volunteer at Wagner Pharmacy in Santa Ana, where there is great health disparity and lack of medication knowledge in the community. I monitor patient adherence through patient education and Medication Therapy Management (MTM) programs, Outcomes and Mirixa. My responsibilities include evaluating patients’ drug compliance and faxing a plan of action with medical literature to their physicians to suggest a change in patients’ medication therapy on behalf of the pharmacist. I observed a Comprehensive Medication Review (CMR) of an elderly patient, who was on multiple drugs for diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Through this experience, I was able to experience the close interaction between the pharmacist and patient and the important role that a pharmacist plays as an integral part of the healthcare team. I also assisted the pharmacist to prepare patient assessment forms required for the pharmacist to prescribe hormonal contraceptives, Naloxone and smoking cessation therapies. I look forward to the expanding roles of pharmacists provided by the passage of SB493. …show more content…
I was able to successfully assist one particular patient with a blood pressure reading of 150/90. A review of her medication history revealed that she was non-adherent. Through patient education and translators, I was able to monitor and improve her medication compliance by providing her a weekly pill case reminder. A few months later with multiple blood pressure screenings, her blood pressure gradually improved to 120/85. Such experiences have confirmed my passion for the field of pharmacy though the positive impacts I have been making on patients’ lives. I will bring my unique pharmacy experiences and personal characteristics: attention to detail, positive attitude, and personal integrity to UCSF and become an exceptional healthcare provider.
It is composed of actively practicing physicians, other prescribers, pharmacists, nurses, administrators, quality improvement managers, and other health care professionals and staff who participate in the medication-use process. The P&T committee should be responsible for overseeing policies and procedures related to all aspects of medication use within an institution. The P&T committee is responsible to the medical staff as a whole, and its recommendations are subject to approval by the organized medical staff as well as the administrative approval process. The P&T committee’s organization and authority should be outlined in the organization’s medical staff bylaws, medical staff rules and regulations, and other organizational policies as appropriate. Other responsibilities of the P&T committee include medication-use evaluation (MUE), adverse-drug-event monitoring and reporting, medication-error prevention, and development of clinical care plans and guidelines. The hospital’s internal policies follow all national standards for how the P&T committee should
Pharmacists have many different responsibilities to their patients, these include promoting patient’s safety through checking the patient’s medication and keeping good records every time a patient fills a new prescription or refills prescription filled (Leagle, 1994). Pharmacists should also improve
Ainsley Soli is a good person who does not belong here. At least, that is what she has been telling herself the last two years as she sits alone in solitary confinement in San Quentin State Prison. The only human contact she has had in the last 742 days is with the feral, monstrous guards that pay her a visit with a tray full of slop called prison food every day. She has not spoken one word since May 24, 2014. Sometimes she wishes she could speak, but there is no use talking when no one listens to what you have to say.
During a interview with County Pharmacists Associations newly elected president, Lillian Shisehaunt, pharmacist, said there were a few concerns that needed to be made aware of. She began to speak the concerns about how older people are taking way too many medications at the same time. In this meeting, other pharmacist agreed to the statement stated as well.
Counseling patients is extremely important; it allows pharmacists with the opportunity to better understand the health status of their patients. If a patient doesn’t know what, why or how to take their medication. We are the ones who help educate them. Better informed patients equates to better overall healthcare. If they are more medically literate before seeking our help, we can better assist them. As they begin to inquire more, it pushes health care providers to be more conscientious of their tasks. Greater care and consideration is taken when our patients can also hold us accountable. Encouraging patients to reach out with concerns or comments will benefit the pharmacist patient care process. For example, if the patient was able to identify that the drug name, though similar, were blatantly incorrect and brought it to the attention of her pharmacist they could have fixed it before the patient walked out the
Byerly, W. (2009). Working with the institutional review board. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official Journal Of The American Society Of Health System Pharmacists, 66(2), 176-184. Retrieved from http://library.kaplan.edu/content.php?pid=150035
In the United States today, the elderly make up approximately 13% of the population but use 30% of all prescriptions written. This article focuses on the importance of understanding patients’ prescriptions and their adverse drug events (ADE), as well as the best ways to care for patients with many prescriptions. The article also discusses the best ways to avoid ADEs.
Pew, Stephen, Ph.D (2008). Introduction to Health Services. 7th Ed. [Video] Thomson Delmar Learning. Retrieved from:
The US is an aging society like many societies around the world and as a result, there is an increase in the number of patients admitted to nursing homes. The elderly population is a fragile population that undergoes mental and physical decline in health. This increases the number of medications used, which increase the risk of adverse drug reactions due to drug-drug and drug-disease interactions. Pharmacists have become increasingly active in nursing homes by providing medication therapy management services, but the benefit in reducing prevalence of these adverse drug reactions is not fully understood. Medication therapy management is a growing field that has been incorporated by pharmacists in different states to optimize therapeutic outcomes in individual patients. Understanding the relationship between medication management and drug- drug
In the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report in 2006, Preventing Medication Error, more than 1/3 of the 1.5 million adverse drug events that were recorded in the United States each year occurred in an outpatient setting. Likewise, in 2008 IOM released a report that laid emphases on the need for setting universal standards within prescribing and dispensing practices. Multiple studies reported that an increased prevalence of patient adherence to taking prescribed medications can be compromised by their inability to comprehend or understand the directions for taking the medication (Wolf et al., 2016). The inability to understand and interpret prescription drug labels were recognized as the leading cause of a large proportion of outpatient medication error and adverse events, as patients may possibly accidentally misuse a prescribed
Historically, the discovery and diagnosis of depression, has raised curiosity on how it affects the ones diagnosed with this disorder. Despite the understanding of depression, having changed over the years that curiosity has remained the same. Regardless of ones perception on this, depression can have serious impacts on one’s life and it is important to recognize and treat this as antithetical disorder.
The provision of written medication information given to the patient helps significantly in cases of medication non compliance (McGraw & Drennan 2004). This is because it aids in memory retention and presents patients with access to a reliable source of concise medication information, particularly if the patient needs to be reminded of certain aspects (Gorgos 2006). These written medication information sheets need to be provided in the patients primary, dominant language because it reduces the difficulty and limits barriers to patient understanding (Gorgos 2006).This is important because this intervention aims to increase a patient’s understanding of their medications, and when a patient feels more competent with the use of their medications, reduced
Goal three by the National Patient Safety Goal for 2014 is to use medicines safely. Many errors occur regularly with medications which is why communication is so important with the doctors, nurses and patients. One process that Joint Commission requires in accredited HCO’s is medication reconciliation “creating the most accurate list possible off all medications a patient is taking, including drug name, dosage, frequency, and route, and comparing that list against the physician’s admission, transfer, and/or discharge orders with the goal of providing correct medications to the patients at all transition points within the hospital (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012, p. 388)”. Ensuring medication reconciliation to the patient, health providers and any new consults that are
My Butler University academic training and intern experience has positioned me to recognize and appreciate the essential role performed by the clinical pharmacist. Although sometimes transparent, it is the clinical pharmacist that is central to a patient’s ultimate successful recovery. This was evident during my clinical rotations, where I directly participated in the optimization of medication therapy to achieve patient-specific outcomes; it is for this reason I am impassioned and compelled to pursue a residency. As a PGY-1 resident, I plan to apply my clinical knowledge in the acute and ambulatory care settings to identify medication-related problems and make therapeutic recommendations in collaboration with other practitioners. Upon completion
Many cities in America are facing sluggish economic recovery, stagnant or failing wages among the lowest-income earners and budget constraints for social welfare programs (1)resulting in more than 46.7 million people in poverty. Poverty in America, and the violence and crime that stems from it helps sustain the most prosperous and corrupt industry of them all, prisons.