Pharmacists are people who work in the healthcare industry and their role is to provide drugs prescription and advice on publicly available medicines. They also work in a laboratory to research new medicines, test their effectiveness, and monitor the safety of medicines.
With the increase in technological advancements, drug prescriptions have become more accurate and there has been a decrease in the number of people taking the wrong medication.
Pharmacists are expected to be experts on drugs, medicines, and treatments. They can prescribe medications based on their skills and expertise.
Keep reading to learn about the vital role of pharmacists, and how to become one of them.
What do pharmacists do?
Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who provide medication advice to patients, stock medications and perform checks to make sure that the pharmacy is well-stocked. They have various responsibilities including;
Check whether prescriptions will interact with any other drugs a patient is taking or any medical conditions that the patient has. check the quality of medicines supplied to patients to know that medicines have a shelf life, and need to be checked regularly to maintain their potency.
Provide advanced information to patients about how & when medicines should be taken. They should also tell them what possible side effects they might experience if they do not take it properly.
Supervise the production and preparation of medicines and assessments of the quality of medicines before they are supplied to patients from pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Fill prescriptions, verifying instructions from physicians on the proper amounts of medication to give to patients. Help in answering a broad range of health questions, including health topics such as diet, exercise, and stress management. Provide advice on more specific issues such as what equipment you might need to manage your symptoms.
Can Pharmacists Produce Medicine?
A pharmacist is trained to evaluate medication use, communicate with other healthcare providers, prepare and dispense medications, and educate patients about these things. A pharmaceutical scientist on the other hand is expertly trained to discover medicines and help bring them to doctors and pharmacists.
Research pharmaceutical scientists spend their time in the lab studying how different compounds interact with disease-causing cells. They are also investigating how these chemicals interact with the human body to decide if they can become new medicines.
Manufacturing new drugs takes hours and hours and it’s so expensive. There are three stages to this process:
Discovery: finding out the new compounds that can be used as a treatment
Development: Researching the new drug to be sure it is safe and effective for both animals and humans
Manufacturing: Production process of the new drug in quantities for distribution nationally or worldwide
New medicine processes require a fully experienced team of scientists with training in different scientific approaches including biology, chemistry, informatics, engineering, and medicine.
In the discovery stage, pharmaceutical scientists may test thousands of molecular compounds before they find 1 compound that fights disease without harming the patient’s health. If a proprietary chemist identifies a promising new compound or target today, it can take up to 20 years before it can be approved for commercial use. This is because hundreds of molecular pathways must be evaluated.
How Does Medicine Impact Society?
The ancient Greeks believed that the body was made up of four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Health was determined by the balance of these four humors. The Greeks also believed that illness could be caused by an imbalance in these humors.
Then, scientists began to understand how diseases were passed from person to person. They found that many diseases are caused by microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. As a result of this discovery, scientists came up with ways to kill or prevent these microorganisms from spreading the disease.
Later, scientists created a new type of medicine called antibiotics which helped people get better faster when they had bacterial infections like pneumonia or tuberculosis. Antibiotics also helped people recover more quickly from surgery because of surgeons.
Many pharmaceutical pieces of research are made to evolve new medicines, So that newly discovered diseases get eliminated, and people get cured.
Another factor to add is “Marketing” Most medicine manufacturing companies nowadays are racing to build up their brand and to market their medicine. Sometimes the same medicine has a different price & other medicines are exclusive only by the parent company, and it can change the price up or down according to its policy.
How Drugs Evolved Over The Years
What do we mean by a drug? A drug is ‘any substance that can produce a pharmacological, physiological, or psychical effect when consumed generally for medical or recreational purposes. A drug can be altered to make it more soluble in water for intravenous injection, for example. Ecstasy has been altered and re-created so many times.
The use of drugs has been around for a long time. The use of drugs can be traced back to the beginning of human history. But how have drugs evolved over the years?
Drugs are evolving in two ways. First, there is an evolution in what constitutes a drug. Second, there is an evolution in how drugs are used and distributed.
The origin of medicine and drugs may be lost in history. The use of plants for healing has been around since ancient times not just in human society but also among civilizations. Plants have been crucial to sustaining human health
The word Drug, taken from the French word “Drogue” which means dry herb, is safe to assume that the earliest drugs were taken out of plant sources. The earliest people used to treat disease using plants, animal products, and minerals- the plants were given priority.
World’s ancient systems of medicine e.g. Greek Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and most professionals believe that wider differences in their principles of treatment should be agreed upon, to some extent, that disease is due to an imbalance within the constituents of the body and that treatment aims to restore the balance with the help of herbs. So, herbs played a vital role in the development of Pharmacology and Pharmacy.
It may not have been created overnight, but the latest advancement in Pharmacology has its foundations built on old knowledge which continues to be applied in conjunction with new findings. Pharmacology has seen many changes since its very beginning, from when it was limited to providing a single dose of medication. Now, chemotherapeutic drugs are used to provide an entire journey of care.
To have a major role in medicine production or prescribing you should acquire a deep understanding of specific chemical compounds that are used to produce medicines. This knowledge you can acquire by studying Pharmacy, a Full-time Graduate Program powered by the University of Debrecen.
What’s The Pharmacy, Full-Time Graduate Program at the University of Debrecen?
The pharmacy program is a (10-semsters-5 Years) that puts you on track to becoming an accredited Pharmacist who can precisely make the medicine.
The program aims to give graduates the skills and knowledge they need for improving patient health, through a mix of traditional and new methods. The students get practical experience in pharmacy medicine, medication therapy management, research, and so on.
To address the need for medical professionals to have a comprehensive knowledge of pharmaceutical drugs and other medical substances, you will learn about their chemical, physical, and therapeutic properties as well as applications in pharmacy practice.
Admission Requirements: Your High school certificate. Entrance examination in biology and physics/chemistry OR successful completion of the Basic Medicine Course at the University of Debrecen. English language proficiency (assessed at the compulsory entrance examination)
How to Study Effectively in Pharmacy School
The first step is to create a study plan. This should include the time you will spend studying each day, what topics you will be reviewing, and how long you will take for each topic.
It is important to avoid distractions when studying in pharmacy school like Social Media Notifications. It is also important to avoid cramming at the last minute and instead spread out your study sessions over time.
It is also vital to maintain a healthy lifestyle in pharmacy school, as this can help with concentration and focus during study sessions.
Conclusion: The Future of Pharmacists and Where It Stands Today
Pharmacists are a vital part of the health care system and they have been around for centuries. They offer a wide range of services to their customers, such as providing prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, health and beauty supplies, pharmacy items, and even veterinary supplies. They also provide counseling services to patients who need them.
