Who do you find more useful? A pharmacist, a doctor or a nurse?

Very interesting. What do you mean by pharmacists knowledge is limited? Are you saying their knowledge is limited to pharmacology while a doctor has both the pharmacological and clinical aspects covered?
What I am asking is do you think a medical doctor can replace a pharmacist? Also; where do you work? (which country and is it a public/private hospital or practice?)

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by Unilaterally Unique on April 20th, 2011

Yes exactly, Doctor's and nurses have to understand all the mental and physical aspects of a person's total health. A Pharmacist's training is focused more on chemistry and the chemical workings of the human body. I would say a Pharmacist knows much more about meds than Nurses ( and some Doctors ). We tend to run to our faithful Pharma guides on a need to know basis. I do think most Docs could stand in for a Pharmacist. I work in Canada where the hospitals are all government run and staffed by Doctor's ( who work under salaries paid by the government ) and Union personnel ( nurses, techs, housekeeping etc etc ).

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by jaindough on April 20th, 2011

so what do you have to say about community pharmacists who have a more wholistic approach to healthcare? or to the university courses who teach pharmacists pathophysiology, genetics, pharmacology, nutrition, psychology, therapeutics etc. as well as chemistry and drug design to their pharmacy students?

what I am deciding on and reporting on is the importance of pharmacists in a clinical setting such as a hospital. is a community pharmacist more valuable than a hospital pharmacist? Or do you also believe a community pharmacist is also expendable?

Also; a big focus of my study is based on my idea that pharmacists have become less and less useful not due to their limited knowledge or lack of care but rather due to the way they are used; i.e. pharmacists are not taken full advantage of; they are in fact an incredible waste of a resource (that is they have so much more to offer however they are not given the chance)..

what do you think? your opinion will be insightful since you have 1st hand experience in a hospital setting in canada which has a very similar set-out to what we have here in Australia. thnx

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by Unilaterally Unique on April 21st, 2011

Sorry for the late response, I was away for a while! I work in an extended care facility ( mostly seniors ) and we don't have an on site "pharmacy". The paitience's pre-packaged meds are kept in the nursing stations and are dispensed by the RNs, and administered by LPNs like me. Here in Canada we are undergoing a process to allow our pharmacists more authority to deal with prescription requests. Since not all pharmacists are interested or need this upgrade, it is under review. Basically, the Techs that work in the hospitals see very few people, work with different medications - like IV solutions and irrigation mixes -, and deal mostly with Registered Nurses ( I'm an Licensed Practical Nurse ) who go over the meds and their administrations with the RN; and sometime the prescribing Doctor. The Pharmacists that dispense to the public are the ones seeking more power to do things like renew long term prescriptions, substitute like drugs ( generic for name brand to save the customer money for example), and authority to dispense certain categories of drugs for minor ailments - bladder/ yeast infections, skin irritations, etc.
Both are highly valuable for their specialized training, but the community pharmacist has more of a direct impact on a patient's health due to their availability to the public, and now with their ability to upgrade their prescribing and treatment skills.
I hope that helped a bit!

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by jaindough on April 26th, 2011

yes,it did..thank you v.much and good luck.

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by Unilaterally Unique on April 26th, 2011

Thank-you! : ) We are the " frount line " people, responsible for monitoring your well being and reporting to doctors. There are a lot of Doctors with the attitude that going to medical school makes them better people than everyone else. ( Dare I say " God " complex? )

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by jaindough on April 20th, 2011

well the cardiologist who was on call... was an arse, really. old school.... patient was not human to him. after a dozen tests... he said after 3 days "you can go home"
and out the door he was.
he did not explain anything to me.
I got an appointment with an other cardiologist the following money ( because I ended up in the ER again atrium fib), and he explained all the tests to me, " calmed me therefore", and he prescribed a med to me that changed my life totally to the better.
the nurses were absolutely top notch..... top top notch....
i think nurses should make as much as doctors. thye have different duties, but nontheless very heavy duty responsibility.

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by Shunyata on April 20th, 2011