World Health Day 2020: Pharmacists as Allies in the International Year of the Nurse
By: Leah Osae
Annually on the 7th of April, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes World Health Day in order to boost awareness for specific health issues and themes (WHO, 2020a). With 2020 deemed the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, this year’s World Health Day aims to honor nurses and midwives by advocating for increased investment in nursing and midwifery education, employment, and leadership (WHO, 2020a). Young pharmacists possess great potential to provide support, allyship, and guidance to novice nurses and midwives, especially in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
In order to advance pharmacist-nurse collaboration globally, medical teams must revisit and re-clarify one another’s roles in patient care and public health education. One study of private hospitals in Karachi found that less than half of surveyed nurses considered pharmacists as reliable sources of drug information (Khan, et al., 2014). Even more worrisome, less than half of the nurses expected pharmacists’ collaboration on drug-related problems (Khan et al., 2014). Moreover, some evidence shows that when professional roles between nurses and pharmacists are unclear or unappealing, the ensuing collaborations may result in short-term improvements while ultimately lacking long-term sustainability (Hung et al., 2017). On the other hand, when the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — Presbyterian/Montefiore (UPMC-Presbyterian) integrated nurses and pharmacists into an inpatient medication education team with distinct roles, pill burden and polypharmacy decreased among UPMC-Presbyterian patients (Calabrese et al., 2003). Simple interventions like the UPMC-Presbyterian medication team represent how intentional allyship between nurses and pharmacists with clarified roles can move the global community towards #HealthForAll.
In health systems, nurses rely heavily on pharmacists for order verification, drug preparation, medication reconciliation and pharmacotherapy recommendations in outpatient and inpatient settings (Leuck, 2015). In the current pandemic, pharmacists have a heightened responsibility to assist nurses with understanding current pharmacotherapy recommendations for COVID-19. Nurses accumulate significantly more inpatient contact time with COVID-19 patients, and pharmacists can improve these interactions by regularly updating nursing teams on drug information, such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine safety profiles and ongoing clinical trial data (WHO, 2020b). Burnout imposes a huge mental and emotional toll on health professionals in times of crisis, and interprofessional collaboration is key for balancing workloads and improving outcomes on integrated teams. Now more than ever, pharmacists and nurses must collaborate to prevent non-pharmaceutical misuse of medications in their communities.
Whether this year’s World Health Day represents a day of happiness or sadness, of celebration or mourning, nurses around the world will undoubtedly continue fighting on the front lines of both pandemic and non-pandemic response. Pharmacists must continue right by their side, supporting and educating nurses and midwives on medication and vaccine guidance as the data becomes available. In particular, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has provided clinical and treatment guidelines for COVID-19 with timely updates on potential treatments, vaccine development, and clinical trial data (FIP, 2020). By consulting verified and reputable resources provided by organizations like FIP and WHO, pharmacists can become more reliable allies to nurses and midwives and improve health outcomes in their communities.
References
Calabrese, A. T., Cholka, K., Lenhart, S. E., McCarty, B., Zewe, G., Sunseri, D., Roberts, M., Kapoor, W. (2003). Pharmacist involvement in a multidisciplinary inpatient medication education program. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 60(10), 1012–1018. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/60.10.1012
Hung, M. Y., Wright, D. J., Blacklock, J., & Needle, R. J. (2017). Identification of the benefits, enablers and barriers to integrating junior pharmacists into the ward team within one UK-based hospital. Integrated pharmacy research & practice, 6, 181–190. https://doi.org/10.2147/IPRP.S146630
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). (2020). COVID-19: Clinical Information and Treatment Guidelines. https://www.fip.org/files/content/priority-areas/coronavirus/COVID-19-Clinical-information-and-treatment-guidelines.pdf
World Health Organization (WHO). (2020a). World Health Day 2020. https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/world-health-day/world-health-day-2020
World Health Organization (WHO). (2020b). Malaria and the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/malaria-and-the-covid-19-pandemic
Khan, A. N., Khan, M. U., Shoaib, M. H., Yousuf, R. I., & Mir, S. A. (2014). Practice nurses and pharmacists: a perspective on the expectation and experience of nurses for future collaboration. Oman medical journal, 29(4), 271–275. https://doi.org/10.5001/omj.2014.71
Leuck, S. (2015). Tips to Build Pharmacist-Nurse Relationships. Pharmacy Times. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/contributor/steve-leuck-pharmd/2015/04/tips-to-build-pharmacist-nurse-relationships
