E-DRUG: Motivating Pharmacists for Enhanced Contribution in Healthcare (cont'd)
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Dear Colleagues,
I have been following with interest contributions on the above-mentioned
subject and would also like to add my own contribution.
We recently had our open day here at the University of Zimbabwe and I was
amazed from the displays within the different sections of pharmacy, at the
amount of information and knowledge the average pharmacy student attains by
the time he/she leaves Pharmacy School. Knowledge which if properly applied
would be of an obvious and overwhelming benefit to society in general and
the healthcare system in particular. In my view the problem does not lie
with anyone else but the pharmacists themselves. Often times, pharmacists
(especially in our setting) are satisfied by doing the very minimum, i.e.,
staying in the pharmacy and dispensing medicines, and do not wish to move
out of their 'comfort zone' to apply the knowledge that they acquired at the
university. As a result, over time they think it is normal 'pharmacy
practice' to stay in the dispensary and to use less than 1% of all the
knowledge that they have acquired. I feel that this situation can not and
should not be remedied by any external motivations because it has nothing to
do with external factors (at least not here in Zimbabwe). Nobody stops the
pharmacist from going onto a ward round with the physicians and finding out
how he/she can be of use in the wards. You see, people can only start to
appreciate you when thay see what you are doing and how you are of benefit
and not the other way round, i.e., telling people that you are of benefit
and then expecting them to appreciate you. From experience I have found out
that when you go to the wards, eventually other health care professionals
start appreciating your role and want to involve you. It is a matter of the
pharmacists just making up their mind to utilise what they learnt for the
betterment of the healthcare system and for their personal job satisfaction.
So let us make up our minds to start practising pharmacy and stop being
technicians and give shape to the profession. I always tell my students that
pharmacy is like a lump of clay - you can mould it into whatever you wish it
to become. If you want to keep as a lump of clay, it remains thus. At the
moment we have just moulded pharmacy into a small spoon, yet what we need for
health care in Africa is a big pot.
Regards
Dexter
Dexter Tagwireyi; BPharm (Hons), PhD
Lecturer & Director
Drug & Toxicology Information Service
School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences
University of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box A 178, Avondale
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax +263 4 790 233
+263 4 307 148
Mobile +263 23 291 301
Email dtagwireyi@medsch.uz.ac.zw
dextag@yahoo.co.uk