1.The art of Pharmacy

Excluding in the introduction, I have decided to kick off the blog with a lighter choice of interest:

Damien Hurst - Pharmacy

This display by Damien Hurst at the Tate Gallery London is a replica of a regular community Pharmacy dispensary. The old apothecary bottles represent fire, earth, air and water. They are also used to represent the traditional symbol of Pharmacy and the passing of time. It is true, we have come so far and we are getting further everyday but I do wonder how much more we can change within the dispensary. Damien Hurst predicts that this Pharmacy, atypical of a community setting will one day be outdated.
Drug companies flood all their funds into research so that we can continue to discover, better and safer medicines. However, everything comes ready supplied and it is only liquid antibiotics that are now made on the premises. This is obviously preferable on the basis that it reduces errors that extemporaneously prepared items can include, it prolongs items shelf life, it is quicker to supply and cheaper. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, the worry of dispensing and checking errors is quite enough to make all Pharmacy staff go grey in their mid twenties without the possible errors and responsibility of drug preparation on top. However, this is means, the drugs will change, the pack sizes may alter, and perhaps we will take preference to certain drug delivery forms - but will it change a great deal more?

It seems that Pharmacy on a practical basis has grown up but the clinical application in community if only in it's infancy. As a dispenser I'm encouraged to complete my NVQ (not just because I legally have to gain a certain level of training) but to expand my knowledge of the medicines I sell and dispense. All Pharmacy staff are obliged to continually expand their knowledge and I think this vital to providing a safe service. As I said in a previous blog I'm hoping for a full future in Pharmacy and I'm hoping that in this future, extension to advanced services will give more room for Pharmacy staff to show off.

After all there is nothing quite like the warm, fuzzy feeling of contentment when you know that your study or perhaps curiosity had led you to an answer that an unhappy customer sought, with them leaving as a happy customer all queries fulfilled.
With this I conclude the art of Pharmacy is not in the future but in the present, the now, the effort put in by each one of us to learn more and to build a stronger more knowledgable Pharmacy front.

Introduction

So this is the beginning...

This blog is the record of an honest and hopefully alternative outlook on the word of Pharmacy today. Pharmacy is ever expanding and the responsibilities of Pharmacy staff and Pharmacists ever increasing. This is why I think it's more important now that the hierarchy of the Pharmacy community hear the voices of those on the front line.
Through this blog I hope to one day achieve an audience in the Pharmacy community as well as Joe Bloggs, the customer, the people who I constantly wish would understand what our job is about.
I want to include the up's and the down's, however I do fear this blog will turn into a huge grumble about the down's. I thereby promise, right now, that this blog will be constructive only.

For the record, I'm not a pharmacist but a pharmacy dispenser. I have been doing the job for five years and amazingly it hasn't put me off for life, I hope to study Pharmacy in University in the next few years.