What Is Pharmacy - Brief Overview

Within the hallowed halls of Pharmacy, an esoteric blend of art and science comes to life. 

Enigmatic concoctions, once the preserve of mediaeval masters, now dance within the confines of gleaming laboratory flasks. Behind those doors, pharmacists don their white coats, transitioning into modern-day magicians, dispensing remedies to heal, comfort, and soothe.

Fundamentally, pharmacists leverage their scope of technical knowledge and skills to address medication-related challenges within the public domain. 

Suffice to say, the profession of pharmacy exists to serve society! 

The pharmaceutical industry stands tall as a testament to human triumphs, battling diseases that once plagued us and ushering in an era of cures and medical marvels.

Today’s article aims to deliver insights into the pharmaceutical discipline and its critical role within the healthcare domain.

What is pharmacy? 

The word ‘pharmacy’ stems from the Greek word "Pharmakon", which means medicine or drug. In practice, pharmacy is a profession that bridges health sciences with chemistry to ensure the safe and effective utilisation of medication. 

The scope of pharmaceutical practice cuts across traditional roles like compounding and dispensing medications on doctors' orders, as well as patient care services like providing drug information and reviewing medications for safety and efficacy.  

All these activities are geared towards the primary goal of optimising medication use to facilitate positive health outcomes for patients.

History of pharmacy 

The history of pharmacy is rich, with many disparate factors contributing to its evolution over time. 

In the 1900s, pharmacists mostly prepared drug products for medicinal use. With the advent of large-scale manufacturing of medicinal and therapeutic products in the 1950s, pharmacists’ roles shifted to compounding, dispensing and labelling prefabricated drug products. 

Towards the mid-1960s, pharmacists further evolved towards a more patient-oriented paradigm, developing the concept of clinical pharmacy. 

Afterwards, the role of pharmacists started to expand with more professional functions and increased professional diversity as they interacted more closely with physicians and other caregivers.

By the early 1990s, a pharmacist's role was defined by the responsible provision of drug therapy to accomplish definite outcomes that improve a patient's quality of life.

Currently, more pharmacists are actively participating in R&D to develop future therapeutic agents whilst leveraging complex new computational, pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics, and nanotechnology techniques.  

Primary disciplines of pharmacy

The following are the main branches of pharmacy:

Pharmaceutics

The pharmaceutics discipline principally focuses on the quantitative design and manufacture of pharmaceutical dosage forms, like capsules and tablets, for safe and effective patient usage. This discipline primarily revolves around converting new chemical entities or old drugs into effective medication. It also involves the design of drug systems. 

Medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy

Medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy disciplines within the field of pharmacy focuses on the design, discovery, and synthesis of new drugs. 

Furthermore, this discipline involves the study of chemical, physical and biochemical properties of natural products and their medicinal implications. Overall, the primary goal of this discipline is new drug discovery for health benefit purposes.

Pharmacy practice

The pharmacy practice discipline cuts across clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical care, pharmacotherapy, and social and administrative sciences. 

Pharmacists who specialise in this discipline tend to work directly with patients and caregivers to ensure the safe and effective use of medications.

Who is a pharmacist? 

Pharmacists are competent professionals in the healthcare ecosystem who receive prescriptions, evaluate them, and then dispense the appropriate medication to the patient. 

Additionally, they provide guidance and counsel on the proper use and adverse effects of the prescribed medication. 

What does a pharmacist do? 

The primary role of a pharmacist is to ensure the safe and effective utilisation of medications to mitigate poor medication adherence. Poor medication adherence affects not only the patient but also the general healthcare system with significant worsening of disease, death and increased healthcare costs. 

Pharmacists also actively participate in disease state management by optimising and monitoring drug therapy. This is often done in collaboration with other health professionals. 

In many parts of the world, pharmacists are also small-business owners, owning a chain of pharmacies or one in which they practise. 

All things considered, pharmacists are highly skilled technical individuals who serve as an intermediary between patients and healthcare providers to improve medication adherence. 

Types of pharmacists

Sometimes called chemists (or dispensing chemists), pharmacists come in different forms and specialities. Here are the different types of pharmacists: 

Clinical pharmacists

Clinical pharmacists continually assess patients' health status and evaluate the effectiveness of the patient's prescribed medications. 

In practice, clinical pharmacists apply their technical knowledge within clinical scenarios and execute tasks beyond fundamental dispensing and order-processing activities. For example, counselling, optimisation of medication selection, dosing, and patient monitoring.

Community pharmacists

Community pharmacists operate out of both large and small chains or grocery stores. They ensure medication safety in the community like how they would in any clinical environment.

For example, they engage in dispensing, transcription, storage, preparation, counselling, and more. Before dispensing drugs, the community pharmacist clinical reviews prescribed medications to ensure dosing appropriateness, interactions, and contraindications. 

They also provide consultation services for prescription drug monitoring programmes to identify patterns that might indicate abuse. These programmes usually seek to screen potentially fatal interactions between medications within the community that may originate from multiple prescribers. 

Consultant pharmacists

Consultant pharmacists are long-term-care professionals who ensure residents of extended-care facilities are given the correct dose of medication at the right frequency. 

They mainly work in psychiatric hospitals, subacute care, hospice programmes, and in-home and community-based care.

Pharmaceutical industry pharmacists

These specialist pharmacists oversee all aspects of drug production for industrial pharmaceutical companies. They may also conduct clinical drug trials and occasionally help in establishing safety regulations to ensure quality control for drugs.

Nuclear pharmacists

Nuclear pharmacists are involved in the development, procurement, dispensing, compounding, distribution, and quality assurance of radiopharmaceuticals. They also monitor the outcomes of patients who are administered radioactive drugs and provide consultation regarding health and safety issues.

Are pharmacists doctors? 

Many modern-day pharmacists occasionally take on clinical responsibilities, like diagnosing and treating patients under the supervision of a doctor. However, this doesn’t make them medical doctors.

Unfortunately, a pharmacy degree doesn’t confer the same level of medical training and authority as a medical degree. 

For example, becoming a doctor often dictates completing a minimum of four years of medical school and a minimum of three years of residency training. Therefore, pharmacists, by qualification, are not doctors.

Why are pharmacists important?

When patients do not adhere to medication, several cascading effects manifest in the public domain. For example, waste of medication and hospital resources, lower quality of life, disease progression, increased hospital visits and hospital admissions.

Pharmacists are important in ensuring drug adherence within the community as some medication regimens can be complex with intricate timings of drug administration. 

Furthermore, some patient behavioural factors may not be perceived by the physicians, which may result in decreased therapeutic outcomes. Fortunately, pharmacists alleviate this burden from a physician by identifying strategies to improve medication adherence within the limits of their practice. 

Also read: Why study Pharmacy in 2023- Top 10 Reasons.

What is the salary of a pharmacist?

According to the Indeed website, the average monthly salary of a pharmacist in Malaysia is approximately RM 3,698. 

Another website, Glassdoor, puts the average salary monthly of a pharmacist in Malaysia at RM 10,971. Overall, the salaries of pharmacists in Malaysia, like other parts of the globe, vary drastically based on skills, education level, experience,  gender, or location. 

What skills does a pharmacist need?

To create utility for patients and the healthcare system, pharmacists require a diverse set of skills to succeed. For example:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving

• Agility and adaptability

• Interpersonal skills

• Initiative and entrepreneurialism

• Effective oral and written communication

• Management skills

• Attention to detail

• Multi-tasking

• Curiosity and imagination

• Analytical skills

• Self-awareness

The above are essential and relevant skills for pharmacists for several reasons.

For example, pharmacists require management skills to better manage employees, and drug inventory control. They may also require strong analytical skills to easily analyse drug interactions and identify potential issues with medication therapy.

How to become a pharmacist?

Various educational institutions in Malaysia offer Pharmacy courses. The University of Nottingham Malaysia offers a 4-year BPharm (Hons) degree programme. This comprehensive course includes various study modules and provides patient interaction experience via placements in community and hospital pharmacies.

The campus also offers a 3-year BSc (Hons) Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences degree programme. This degree prepares students for the realities of real-world healthcare and equips them with interprofessional collaborative practice competencies.

Additionally, the university offers a world-class four-year Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) master's programme that is multifaceted, with a range of opportunities for specialised advancement of skills beyond the pharmacy degree curriculum. 

For example, master's students have the opportunity to specialise in experimental and clinical pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, or pharmaceutical sciences. They can even gain competencies in health system pharmacy administration to manage highly complex and multifaceted pharmacy enterprise operations. 

Conclusion

In summary, the field of pharmacy is a dynamic and essential part of healthcare, bridging the gap between medical science and patient care.

Pharmacists play a pivotal role in improving patient health, whether it's through direct patient care, research, or public health initiatives. 

Furthermore, the pharmaceutical discipline offers a high level of job stability and financial reward as an essential part of the healthcare ecosystem. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, so too will the role of pharmacists, adapting to meet new challenges and opportunities. 

If you are considering a career in this field, understanding the breadth and depth of pharmacy is crucial for appreciating its impact on our health and well-being.

Also, If you are keen to learn more about your academic pathway and campus life at UNM, a free shuttle bus service is available every Saturday, departing from Future Students Centre, Petaling Jaya to Semenyih. Book your spot at The Notts Express!

Explore the scholarships available for our foundation, undergraduate, and postgraduate courses. Also, remember to download our prospectus for detailed information about our programs!

This article aims to give an overview of Malaysia's education system for public understanding. However, it does not cover all aspects of the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM), so readers are encouraged to seek more information if necessary.