Pharmacy practice
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In Thailand, pharmacists are responsible for all activities to ensure access to medicines throughout pharmaceutical supply chain. Competency framework (CF) is an important guidance for professional development and workforce planning. ⋯ Regarding the professional goal to evolve pharmacists from generalists to specialists for providing higher quality of professional services, the pharmacists are required to demonstrate general competencies and service-specific competencies. The findings serve as the need-based evidence for developing a national CF for pharmacists in Thailand.
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This study aimed to evaluate the content available on Facebook pharmacy groups in Jordan regarding the perception of the pharmacists' role during the coronavirus pandemic in Jordan. ⋯ Pharmacists perceived their role as a positive role during the coronavirus pandemic. Not only they took responsibilities for their daily services during the crises, but they took additional responsibilities to assure patient safety and satisfaction.
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Within a crippling economic context and a rapidly evolving healthcare system, pharmacists in Lebanon are striving to promote their role in primary care. Community pharmacists, although held in high esteem by the population, are not recognised as primary health care providers by concerned authorities. They are perceived as medication sellers. ⋯ However, OPL faces a major internal political challenge: its governing body, which is reelected every three years, holds absolute powers in changing strategies for the three-year mandate, without program continuation beyond each mandate. Within this context, we recommend the implementation of a strategic plan to integrate pharmacy in primary health centers, promoting the public health aspect of the profession and taking into account of critical health issues and the changing demographics and epidemiological transition of the Lebanese population. Unless the proposed blueprint in this paper is adopted, the profession is unfortunately condemned to disappear in the current political, economic and health-related Lebanese context.
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There is evidence that the Australian Government is embracing a more integrated approach to health, with implementation of initiatives like primary health networks (PHNs) and the Government's Health Care Homes program. However, integration of community pharmacy into primary health care faces challenges, including the lack of realistic integration in PHNs, and in service and remuneration models from government. Ideally, coordinated multidisciplinary teams working collaboratively in the community setting are needed, where expanding skills are embraced rather than resisted. ⋯ At the same time, the Government has committed to conclude negotiations on the 7th Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) with a focus on allowing pharmacists to practice to full scope and pledges to strengthen the role of primary care by better supporting pharmacists as primary health care providers. The 7CPA and the Government's 10-year plan will largely shape the practice and viability of community pharmacy. It is essential that both provide a philosophical direction and prioritize integration, remuneration and resources which recognize the professional contribution and competencies of community pharmacy and community pharmacists, the financial implications of service roles and the retention of medicines-supply roles.
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Although a highly common practice in hospital care, tablet splitting can cause dose variation and reduce drug stability, both of which impair drug therapy. ⋯ The high percentage of unnecessary tablet splitting suggests that more regular, rational updates of the hospital's list of standard medicines are needed. Also, inappropriate splitting behavior suggests the need to develop tablets with functional scores.