Role of Pharmacist = Prescribe drugs too?

[pharmd4me@510]

as much as i hope that the general public could be more aware of a pharmacist's resourcefulness and their roles in decision making, (hence possibly leading to more respect for the profession), i don't actually think prescribing should become a part of their responsibility. if it does i'm actually a little worried..because ultimately the physician is the one who diagnoses, who has the best understanding of the patient's medical background, and THIS should form the basis of their ability to prescribe. if pharmacists are not educated this way (and lack this type of clinical experience), how are they expected to make as informed a decision as physicians?

health of the community should always come first. shaping the role of a health profession should come next, hence 'patient-centered pharmaceutical care'

Pharmacy is not what it's used to be. It is becoming very clinical these days. Alot of pharmacy students are interested in pursuing a residency, just like medical doctors. Although we are not trained to diagnose, we still have to know how to recognize signs and symptoms as well as lab values (normal vs abnormal); we just dont use sophisticated diagnostic equipments to do so, again, becuase we are not trained for that purpose. However, we can still look at lab values and determine whether the patient is hyperlipidemic or not and the appropriate drug regimen to recommend. Thats just one example. I room with 3 medical students. What they learn is very much similar to what pharmacy students learn although we go deeper into the pharmacology of disease states such as mechanism of action of a drug and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics. Doctors often seek pharmacists for advise regarding appropriate drug treatments for their patients. However,pharmacists often dont get the credit and the respect that they deserve. This is becuase there are people out there that still think all pharmacists do is dispense drugs. We need to steer people away from that kind of thinking and one way to do that is to allow pharmacists the ability to prescribe

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[david594]

How would this affect malpractice insurance for pharmacists?

 

[YapYap6]

I'm sure they'd end up paying a higher premium. Not as high as MD's mind you, but much higher than the paltry sum that they pay now!

How would this affect malpractice insurance for pharmacists?

 

[Sparda29]

The issue of malpractice insurance in this country has gotten ridiculous.