Name: Juvy Anne A.

Lozano
Topic: The role of pharmacists
Audience: Pharmacy students
Purpose: To persuade pharmacy students to improve the practice of pharmacy assuming that they
would be pharmacists in the future.
Title: Misconceptions About The Role Of Pharmacists
What do we really think of pharmacists? Do we look at them as professionals in line with
our doctors and other healthcare providers? Or do we merely see them as sales representatives?
According to Ms. Leonila Ocampo, President of the Philippine Pharmacists Association
(PPhA), The perception of most Filipinos today is that the pharmacist is just a seller of the drug
and you cant blame them because that is what they see and this is still how some pharmacists
act.
Pharmacists, in general, are medication experts, responsible to patients or achieving the
best medication treatment outcomes at the same time assuming cost-effective and safe therapy.
Pharmacists working with health care teams advise other health professionals on the proper dose,
availability, side effects and monitoring parameters for effective medication usage. In some
settings, pharmacists work independently or within collaborative practice agreements to manage
patients drug therapy. Pharmacists may work in all environments where medications are used or
medication therapy is evaluated as part of the patients care but most commonly in communitybased settings and health systems.
Pharmacists here in the Philippines are considered as tinderas by most Filipinos
especially for those in the community setting. Others treat them in a harassed manner as if they
were just ordering an uneducated errand man. Well, of course, sometimes we cannot blame them
for addressing pharmacists as such because some Filipinos thought of pharmacy assistants as the
real pharmacists. Most pharmacy assistants are high school graduates or college undergraduates
who are mostly the frontlines in most drug stores which the consumers have the actual dealings
resulting in lack of interpretation and proper communication concerning the proper usage of
drugs. From this kind of practice which is still prevalent in the country, there would be a lot of
problems that would arise from this lack of proper dissemination.
It is a big disappointment for pharmacists who took the course for 4 years, undergone 960
tedious hours of internship in 3 main areas of the profession, spent a fortune in tuition fees and to
top it all, took the dreaded board exam just to get the coveted license. This scenario pushes most
of our professional pharmacists to practice their profession in other countries where greater
opportunities awaits them. Being a pharmacist is listed as one of the Highest Paying Jobs in the
U.S. They ranked 11th in the Jobs that Pay the Most with $53/hour; $110, 240/year. Pharmacists
are listed with surgeons, pilots, and CEOs. How come Filipino pharmacists are not getting what
is proportional to its American counterparts?
The PPhA is challenging pharmacists to really do their job, from educating an individual
regarding a particular drug down to the selection, procurement, storage and dispensing of the

drug. It is also appealing to hospitals and drugstore owners and operators to support pharmacists
in espousing this type of practice because this is all for the good of the patients. Medication is
too expensive and risky for patients not to use it properly. The medication of the patient has to be
really look into for the benefit of the patient, besides improper use of medicine may cause more
harm than benefit. Only several hospitals in the Philippines have actually invested their resources
to push pharmacists in taking their real roles as medication managers and counselors.
Therefore, I am challenging you my fellow pharmacy students to change the way our
patients see us. We dont just dispense their medications without proper counseling like most
pharmacists do. We should orient them of the proper usage of a certain drug (how it should be
taken, at what time it should be administered, how frequent the drug is taken and what possible
side effects does it have). In this way, we could achieve a more reputable image and a more
effective drug therapy which aims to achieve definite outcomes that improve a patients quality
of life. These outcomes are cure of a disease, elimination or reduction of a patients
symptomatology, and arresting or slowing of a disease process.