EP31 The Under-Utilization of Pharmacists in the US Healthcare System

When you think of a pharmacist, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a person in a white coat behind the counter at a drugstore that prepares your medication for you. However, pharmacists do a lot more than that. 

The amount of education and specialization pharmacists receive allows them to work as healthcare professionals in different settings and capacities. The rules of what pharmacists can and can't do have dramatically changed over the years, expanding from only creating medication prescribed to now providing healthcare advice, especially in areas of the country where there is a shortage of medical doctors.

In today's episode, we want to shed some light on how pharmacists can be used in a broader way to help alleviate the strain on the healthcare system. From what their training entails and allows them to do, how history has shaped the profession, and some medication education!

To help educate us, we invited Elizabeth Skoy, pharmacist and associate professor at the North Dakota State University School of Pharmacy, to share with Patty Post of Checkable Health what pharmacists do behind the scenes and how the value of the pharmacist is to be a medication expert. Elizabeth explains how she teaches her students to be accessible healthcare providers for patients while serving as integral members of the healthcare team. Most of the work Elizabeth has done has been to advance the pharmacy profession to expand what it means to be a pharmacist.

Tune in to hear an enlightening conversation about an under-utilized profession to get a better picture of how pharmacy is shaping health care today!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What goes on in pharmacy behind the scenes
• Background history of pharmacy
• Pharmacy specialization and education
• How pharmacists are helping rural communities
• What sort of help can pharmacists provide patients
• What is the best way to administer an antibiotic to children
• Dangers of expired medicine in your medicine cabinet
• Does consistency in timing matter when taking medications

To learn more about how the pharmacy profession is being expanded, head to The Center for Collaboration and Advancement in Pharmacy (CAP) NDSU website here!

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Connect with Checkable Health:

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Connect with Patty Post:

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