Pharmacy Practice in the United States
From its very beginnings, pharmacy was considered the art of making medicines. Like most arts that originated in earlier times, it came eventually to be regarded as a science in the modern age (Wutoh 2). Throughout history, various cultures have practiced pharmacy by creating drugs "to treat illness, relieve pain, create euphoria and promote health" (Wutoh 3). All of the medicinal creations around the globe over the past millennium show that the making of medicines has been a universal process that is natural to humankind. Yet, in the United States, the science of pharmacy has taken a new trajectory -- with the pharmaceutical industry representing a significant portion of gross domestic product. Pharmacy practice in the United States is not just an art or science -- it is also a big business. Nonetheless, while the usage and significance of medicines has differed from culture to culture, place to place, and time to time, one constant that has remained throughout the history of pharmacy is the special focus from every culture that medicinal substances have received throughout the world. Today, in the United States, the science of pharmacy has risen to incredible heights with a broad range of implications for those who develop drugs, those who administer them, those who use them, and those who oversee legal aspects related to the manufacturing of drugs. This paper will examine the practice of pharmacy in the United States and discuss its many several aspects.
A Highly Specialized Science
As Rosemary Onuegbu points out, pharmacy practice in the United States is a highly specialized science with a wide variety of practice areas. One of the most common areas of pharmacy practice today in the U.S. -- and most likely to be the first place one goes in order to purchase self-care pharmaceuticals -- is the community pharmacy, or better known as the chain pharmacy. Chain pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and Kroger are commonplace examples of community pharmacies: what sets them apart from other types of community pharmacies is the fact that they are corporately owned and typically have brick-and-mortar operations in several states and areas across the country. They are the most visible from the roadside and usually the first place a patient goes when needing to fill a prescription. They represent, in many ways, the face of the pharmaceutical industry for many people: the friendly pharmacists working tirelessly behind the counter to fill doctors' orders for patients. Yet, in actuality, these pharmacies are really only one small part of the practice of pharmacy in the U.S. today. Indeed, other types of community pharmacies exist -- such as the independent pharmacy, which is privately owned, usually by a pharmacist or group of pharmacists (Onuegbu 10). There are mail-order pharmacies, franchise pharmacies and department store pharmacies -- but even these only tell a small portion of the story of pharmacy practice in the U.S. Still, the fact that in today's United States there is practically a pharmacy on every corner indicates how pervasive the pharmaceutical industry has become in American society.
How did the pharmacy industry get to be so big, so expansive, and so pervasive? Part of the reason for the pervasiveness of the industry is the change in the patient-physician-pharmacist relationship (Onuegbu 21). In the old model, the patient was at the center of the relationship. The patient would receive a prescription from his or her doctor and take it to the pharmacist for filling.
In the new model, the pharmacist is at the center of the relationship and communicates directly both with the physician and patient, serving as an intermediary between the two. In other words, the pharmacist has taken on a larger role in the sector of health care. In today's realm of pharmacy practice, the patient-oriented pharmacist must maintain a high degree of drug knowledge, communication skills, and the ability to gather/analyze information in order to "help sick patients cope with their feelings" (Onuegbu 22). In order to do that, the pharmacist must be familiar with all the new and old types of drugs available on the market, which can help treat particular symptoms, and which to offer patients looking for the least expensive drug for their particular ailment. Competition among drug manufacturers has made the pharmacist an important link in the industry-to-patient chain.
Another part of the reason for why pharmacy practice has expanded...
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