The colossal emblem of the healthcare profession substantive enough as the Hallmark of the healthcare system is irreplaceably Pharmacy. Regardful of every integral organ of the healthcare system, Pharmacy is indispensably the backbone and life-line of the healthcare profession.
In the words of Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493 – 1514 A.D), “If you want to explain any poison properly, what then isn’t a poison? All things are poison, nothing is without poison; the dose alone causes a thing not to be poison”.
The Pharmacist is therefore, the one healthcare professional saddled with the custody of poisons having the propensity to affect humanity for the good or bad. This explicitly projects Pharmacy as ‘The Impetus’ of the health system as no other arm of the system is proficient in this responsibility.
Pharmacy as a clinical science and area of specialization within the scope of the healthcare profession patently anchors the ship of healthcare professionalism as it undoubtingly mediates the diagnosis and inferential resolutions of every other arm of the health system and the long-run effect on the patient.
Pharmacy is scientific, artistic and most importantly clinical and ethical in its designation of ensuring a proficient delivery of therapy (medicament) to the patients. Every medical diagnosis, report and prescription order by a physician or any other arm of the healthcare profession would optimally have the desired effect only through the requisite organ – PHARMACY.
‘The Who’s’ of being responsible for patient outcomes with respect to their drug therapy, prevention of drug interactions and adverse effects in patients, accurate drug prescription, pharmacovigilance and drug information all have the centerpiece of their answer embedded in pharmacy literally. No organ of the healthcare system monopolizes the professionalism and ethics of design, compounding and ethically dispensing medicament to patients with the sole aim of having it elicit its required therapeutic effect for optimal restoration of health prior to a deviation from normalcy, other than Pharmacy.
Every member of the doorway to health as regards the healthcare system is hinged on Pharmacy as ‘the framework’. This explains why the slightest oversight, imbalance or misappropriation by the pharmacist abruptly and catastrophically destroys every building block of the healthcare profession hence, it is ‘all-important’ and ‘all-inclusive’ as a hinge on which healthcare delivery to the patient hangs. The all-inclusivity of Pharmacy obviously and continually resonates within and beyond the borders of the healthcare system as it is pragmatically involved in all aspects of the medication delivery system.
Pharmacists have extensive clinical knowledge and expertise in the use of medications, and are one of the most accessible of all healthcare professionals. This makes Pharmacy uniquely positioned in the healthcare system to help patients optimize appropriate medication use, reduce medication related problems and improve health outcomes through the delivery of pharmacist-provided patient care services, including Medication Therapy Management (MTM), health promotion and education, and disease prevention and mitigation. The field of Pharmacy is the only fulcrum which loads and allows the healthcare lever to rightly and steadily oscillate over humanity.
The strife within the different organs of the healthcare profession as to which holds ‘the emblem of HealthCare service’ is uncompromisingly and undoubtedly resolute as Pharmacy being the backbone of the healthcare profession.
Written by Augustine Manchang Dashe of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria – Nigeria, reachable via ©augustine2k5@gmail.com, 07069142069
