Emerging roles in pharmacy- Pharmacists in Australia: care for their communities
By Lily Pham(11/8/21)
Over the past several years, Australians have weathered through the natural disasters of the 2019–2020 bushfires, drought, followed swiftly by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the resiliency of Australians, these unprecedented events have placed additional stress on the existing healthcare system. With these changes, pharmacists have adapted to meet the increasing health demands of their communities. Some of the many roles pharmacists have emerged and been welcomed included:
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trained Pharmacists
The natural disasters saw the decline of mental health in many drought-and bushfire-affected communities. As a result, the Australian Government granted funding for pharmacists in these affected areas to attain MHFA accreditation, recognising pharmacists’ role as mental health care providers. Such accreditation would allow pharmacists to identify, appropriately triage, and potentially de-escalate mental health crises situations including, suicide.
2. COVID-19 Strikeforce Pharmacists
Upon the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, roles in hospital pharmacy were created to help high-risk settings, primarily in residential aged care, manage any potential COVID-19 outbreak within their facility. By working collaboratively with other medical and allied healthcare professionals, pharmacists were able to deliver clinical education and advise on any facility lockdown protocols to support the facilities’ healthcare team in the event of an outbreak. In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, pharmacists were able to remotely advise on and organise the delivery of necessary drugs to affected facilities.
3. COVID-19 Vaccination Pharmacists
Pharmacists have played an active role in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out with pharmacist-led hospital vaccination hubs and community pharmacies activated. In hospital vaccination hubs, pharmacists were involved in planning the logistics of vaccination delivery, drawing the vaccines from multi-dose vials, and collaborating with the medical team on updated drug information according to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) guidelines. In addition to the role of a hospital COVID-19 vaccination pharmacist, community pharmacists were also able to administer these doses.
