E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (4)
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Dear Rabecca,
As pharamacologist I do interact with both pharmacists and nutritionits. I teach and train both groups pre- and in-service. I have come to the conclusion that some aspects of pharmaceutical sciences e.g pharmakonitecs need to be incorporated into the curriculum for the nutritionists. The pharmacy student needs in turn, to be exposed to clinical nutrtion i.e nutritional therapy. In fact I could go as far as saying all health professionals.
Nutritional issues are never really taken seriously except by nutritionists/dieticians.
Ask any one of the groups, the diffrence between a drug and a nutrient. You will be amazed.
Regards
Norman
Norman Z. Nyazema
University of the North
South Africa
nznyazema@yahoo.com
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (5)
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Norman has raised a very interesting point about the curriculum. My
concern is that providing additional (and necessary insight) into
these primary health care matters will be of no value if the
curriculum does not include socio-economic competencies which convince
pharmacists that they have a wellness and preventative role.
I am also concerned that traditional content teachers do not have an
awareness of or interest in this role and that this will result in a
lack of integration in the curriculum.
I hope that my concerns are unfounded but would be very interested to
find out the opinions of others.
thank you
Billy
Billy Futter
Associate Professor
Faculty of Pharmacy
Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
email B.Futter@ru.ac.za
phone 046 603 8494
fax 046 636 1205
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (7)
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Billy Futter touches on a reality in traditional pharmacy training, in respect to an area considered by a few schools of pharmacy thought (as we can see from these contribution) as uninteresting, and therefore not so important to invest in by pharmacy. May I challenge us to look up the GAIN website (the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), as I believe that will also provide this discussion an interesting angle on this subject. Here's another Alliance that is investing in public wellfare, working with both private and public sectors. I would like to know what approaches GAIN considers to deliver their strategy(ies), and whether pharmacy has been considered as one of these avenues, if so, how?
Regards,
Bonnie
Bonface Fundafunda PhD., MBA., B.Pharm
Manager, Drug Supply Budget Line
Ministry of Health,
P.O. Box 30205,
Ndeke House,
Lusaka,
Zambia
Tel: +260 211 25 59 11
Fax: +260 211 25 14 04
Mobile: + 260 979 25 29 00
Email: bcfunda@hotmail.com