Pharmacy Awareness

Pharmacy Awareness 'Trusted Care When & Where You Need It'

This information was originally posted during the annual Pharmacy/Pharmacist Awareness Month, held nationally through out the month of March each year.  It is the profession’s opportunity to educate and make people aware of the roles and responsibilities of the pharmacist in the various environments that pharmacists find themselves working in.  We have decided that the information was very well done and deserves to be made available all year.  We will work to collect additional documents, video, and website links as it is collected to make this page a useful resource for anyone with an interest in what their pharmacist is able to do and the expanded roles they are playing as part of the healthcare team in hospital, in community, in government, in the military and anywhere you might find a pharmacist today.

Please read on…

This month at our pharmacy, we’re celebrating Pharmacist Awareness Month. As a key member of your health care team, we want to make sure that you understand the full range of services we can offer. In addition to filling your prescriptions and providing expert medication advice, did you know that we can also:

  • Extend a prescription that has run out
  • Review your medications to help you make sense of a complex regimen
  • Prepare a medication that is no longer available
  • Give you a flu shot or other vaccinations
  • Prescribe medications for some minor ailments
  • Help you quit smoking

You can also ask us about managing long-term conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.  We can help you understand what it is and how to treat it.  And we’ll let you know if you should see your doctor or other health professional.

Our role is changing to help you better manage your health.   Here’s a video prepared by Alberta Health Services describing some of the new services being offered here in Alberta.  [Video Link]

Just because it is Pharmacy Awareness, here are three other video’s to help you get a better appreciation of the work Pharmacists are doing across the country and for that matter through out North America, as Pharmacists world wide continue to redefine their jobs, becoming less attached to the dispensing of the medication and much more as an important healthcare professional whether it be community, hospital, university, industry or the many other environments you can find a pharmacist filling new roles.  We have also included a video for those students considering Pharmacy as a career path.   Hope you enjoy the videos:

New for 2015, a video that better explains the focus of pharmacists across Canada, on medication therapy management, with an emphasis on professional services not just the dispensing of medications:

National poll:

Canadians support increased role for pharmacists and trust pharmacists to deliver high-quality care and services

In a national poll of over 2900 Canadians conducted by Abacus Data in February 2015 to mark PAM:

  • 85% of respondents believed that pharmacists have the education and professional training to do more for patients than fill prescriptions. A majority of Canadians trust  pharmacists to provide key health services such as advice on vaccinations (59%), medicines (78%), the management of chronic conditions (51%), healthy lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and weight loss (57%) and the management of common ailments like the cold or flu (67%). Read the report.
  • 82% of respondents believed Canadians’ quality of life would increase if pharmacists were more included in the health care teams and 85% believed an enhanced role for pharmacists would result in less overcrowding in emergency wait rooms. Read the report.

Talk to us!  Call or come in to discuss setting up a time to discuss a review of your medications, and to see how the pharmacist can help you maximize the benefits and minimize any adverse effects associated with your medication regimen.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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