Academic literature on the topic 'Pharmacy as a profession'

Pharmacy, particularly in the community setting, has been subject to significant changes over the last three decades. Running concurrently to these changes has been the development of the field of pharmacogenetics, or ‘personalised medicine’, which is likely to have significant impacts on hospital and community pharmacy practice. Despite this, little sociological research has been undertaken to map the contemporary pharmacy landscape into which pharmacogenetics may be integrated and the effects that pharmacogenetics may have on pharmacy. Through 38 semi-structured interviews with diverse practitioners, this thesis addresses these gaps in the academic literature by positing a novel sociological model through which contemporary pharmacy practice may be analysed and examining the potential impacts of pharmacogenetics on it. It is argued that a dual approach to the management of medicines intersects both community and hospital pharmacy. Within this dual medicines management model, codified, organisational interests in medicines management are practised alongside a more negotiated approach which is enacted through what has been called here the ‘pharmacy gaze’. The pharmacy gaze characterises the ways in which medicines and the patient bodies to which they are administered are co-constructed by pharmacists through discourses of risk and toxicity. Pharmacogenetics, it is argued, represents a way in which the pharmacy gaze, and patient bodies within it, may be increasingly molecularised and risk and toxicity increasingly managed at the genetic level within pharmacy practice. Within this, a number of ‘pharmacogenetic futures’ involving pharmacy testing, patient counselling and practitioner education are presented although these are argued to be highly speculative and to present a number of macro- and micro-level challenges for policy makers and pharmacists. The thesis concludes by making a number of recommendations as to how some of these challenges may be addressed.

Class of 2005 Abstract<br>Objectives: To explore the factors that motivate current pharmacy students to enter the field of pharmacy, and compare these motivational factors to currently registered and practicing pharmacists. Methods: Identical questionnaires were distributed to the student and pharmacist populations. The questionnaire collected ratings on how influences such as job security, earnings potential, community service, and family obligation affected decisions to enter the profession of pharmacy. Other data regarding salary information, satisfaction with the profession, first career choices, and basic demographics were also collected. Results: Questionnaires were completed and returned by 214 students and 84 practitioners. Statistically significant differences were found between groups for all demographic descriptors (p<0.001). Differences were also seen amongst rating scores applied to most of the various motivational factors listed. However, when put in ranking order, the top 4 motivating influences for choosing pharmacy were consistent across all survey groups. The factor with the least influence on study participants was also consistent amongst all groups. Implications: People that are choosing pharmacy as a profession today differ demographically from experienced pharmacists; however the influences on selecting pharmacy as a profession are similar.

The thesis is about the social organisation of employment. This is analysed through an examination of women's professional careers, specifically in a single profession - that of pharmacy. Standard theories of women's employment place the social divisions of employment at the forefront of analysis, and this is particularly so in accounts of professional employment, where the highly structured nature of professional careers is the object of explanation. Nonetheless, such explanations are deficient in the way in which they locate gender in employment processes. It will be argued that the standard accounts retain a theoretical division between social and employment structures which contributes to the reification of job structure, and to a narrow view of the social relations of employment. Theorists have stressed the gender construction of employment, and processes of de-skilling and segregation to explain women's careers. This has led to problems in dealing with the complexity and substance of professional women's employment and, particularly, to difficulties accounting for processes of change as increasing numbers of women enter male-dominated professions. The social organisation of employment has been analysed as a particular influence on jobs rather than as a general statement of employment relations. Labour markets have been seen as rigid and constraining structures somehow distinct from the social relations that produce them. In the profession of pharmacy, for example, the increasing entry of women can only be understood as a unified process of changing employment and social relations, in which the movement of groups through the career structure is the same process generating that structure. It will be argued that employment divisions in pharmacy reflect the structuring of employment in relation to household finance. The generation of such divisions is seen as the product of integrated social and employment relations, in which, if it is to be routinely reproduced, job organisation must accommodate the requirements of incumbents.

Background: This research explored regulation and professionalism with respect to the current state of professional practice for hospital pharmacy technicians. Since July 2011 pharmacy technicians must register with the General Pharmaceutical Council in order to practise. An acknowledged benefit of registration is professional recognition; however there is a lack of published research about pharmacy technicians’ professionalism with no study found that offers a holistic exploration post mandatory registration. Method: This study utilised a broad discourse analytic approach to examine how pharmacy practitioners talk about the pharmacy technician role, regulation and professionalism, being sensitive to the content of these accounts but also the ways in which they are constructed and the varying rhetorical effects and power. The sociology of the professions provided the theoretical background for this study to examine the notion of professionalism in modern healthcare and whether or not pharmacy technicians are enabled to undertake the professional practice for which they are now accountable. Data were gathered through interviews with pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and Directors of Pharmacy, which were digitally recorded and transcribed prior to discourse analysis. Findings: The findings illuminate gaps in the professional socialisation of pharmacy technicians related to 1) Policy: a lack of appropriate conditions and opportunities for pharmacy technicians to demonstrate professional practice and contribute to current policy implementation, 2) Practice: pharmacy technicians do not have the supportive infrastructure to enable their own professional practice or carry out research, and 3) Education and Training: current qualifications are traditionalistic and not fit for purpose. Discussion: Recommendations are made in relation to these three concerns, including: development of pharmacy technician practice to take responsibility for the supply chain of medicines; review organisational structures, roles and discourses to enable this clear division of labour; the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK promotes the development of a ‘Scope of Professional Practice for Pharmacy Technicians’ to support practice development and clarify accountabilities, and improves promotion of pharmacy technician research activity; and finally, review the content and level of pharmacy technician pre- and post-registration qualifications to address identified gaps and to support a structured career pathway. Findings from this study have already been transferred into practice in terms of: development of national recruitment guidance; establishment of a ‘Professionalism Programme’ for all local pharmacy staff; development of terms of reference for a local pharmacy technician professional forum to enable professional development and leadership; and, the initiation of discussions to develop a national pharmacy technician professional forum in Scotland.

This thesis uses the findings from a study of pharmacists and non-pharmacists to explore the concept of professional identity in pharmacy. Pharmacists are well-established as providers of healthcare in hospitals and community pharmacies and their position as dispensers of prescribed medicines, and advisors on medicines in general seem relatively secure, as does their clinical role in hospital and their extended role in community pharmacy. However, previous studies have suggested that there is still ambiguity over the identity of pharmacists. Government policy in particular can be oblique and there seemed to be a need to clarify who pharmacists are. Consequently, a study was designed to address this topic. The concept of professional identity in pharmacy is made up of three dimensions: how pharmacists see themselves, how pharmacists believe others see them and how others do see pharmacists. This study investigated all three dimensions of professional identity in pharmacy.The research adopted a grounded theory approach and a qualitative study was undertaken in two stages. The first stage involved 21 pharmacists taking part in group interviews. The second stage involved 85 pharmacists, pharmacy support staff, nurses, doctors and lay pharmacy users participating in individual interviews. The data were analysed using the framework method.Analysis of the data generated for this study revealed nine identities for pharmacists: the medicines maker; the supplier; the scientist; the medicines advisor; the clinical practitioner; the minor medical practitioner; the unremarkable character; the business person and the manager. The pharmacists' identity as medicines advisor is considered the core identity which exists for pharmacists today and this manifests itself in different ways, depending on the setting or organisation worked in.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Florida, 2004.<br>Typescript. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 173 pages. Includes Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Le 21 germinal an XI, une loi importante vient organiser la profession de pharmacien. Elle consacre la disparition de l’apothicaire au profit d’une profession plus moderne. Sous l’empire de ce texte, va apparaître un nouveau modèle d’organisation de la profession. Ce modèle, fruit d’une lente évolution, est examiné au regard de ses implications sociales et juridiques, en se fondant sur des documents d’archives inédits relatifs notamment à la création des syndicats pharmaceutiques<br>The 21 germinal year XI, an important law comes to organize the profession of pharmacist. It consecrates the disappearance of the apothecary in favor of a more modern profession. Under the empire of this text, a new organizational model for the profession will appear. This model, the result of a slow evolution, is examined with regard to its social and legal implications, based on unpublished archive documents relating in particular to the creation of pharmaceutical unions

The philosophy of pharmaceutical care, which defines a patient-centred approach to practice, has been embraced and upheld by national and international pharmaceutical organisations for two decades. However, pharmacists have been slow to change their practice and implement a pharmaceutical care approach. It has been suggested that amongst other factors, short-comings in pharmaceutical education have contributed to this reluctance of the profession to transform practice. Efforts to address these short-comings in pharmaceutical education have focused on the curriculum and pedagogic practices, and not on the pharmacy educators themselves. Palmer (1998) asserts that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher”. In essence, "we teach who we are" and good teachers have one common trait: “a strong sense of personal identity that infuses their work”. This study identified, described and analysed the self-perceived professional identities of pharmacy educators within the South African context. This included ascertaining factors and contexts which contributed to participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. In an effort to understand the influence the educators have on practice and on changing practice and vice-versa, the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of participants regarding the philosophy and practice of pharmaceutical care, and pharmaceutical education were also explored. Situated within a constructivist-interpretive, qualitative paradigm and making use of methodological triangulation, this study was conducted in three phases, each employing a different qualitative method to collect data. The first phase made use of narrative analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of pharmacy educators’ perceived professional identities and to explore how their experiences, across various contexts, have formed their professional identities. In-depth individual narrative interviews were used to provide a forum in which the participants could reflect upon and tell their professional life-story. This phase of the study also made use of the exploration of metaphors to further investigate the participants’ professional identity and, more particularly, their images of themselves as “teacher” and role model for students. A maximum variation, purposeful sampling approach was used to recruit eight pharmacy academics - one from each school or faculty of pharmacy in South Africa, as participants in this phase of the study. The second and third phases explored more widely, the insights gained from the first phase and the formation of professional identity, attitudes, beliefs and practices of pharmacy educators in South Africa. Two focus groups were employed during the second phase and the study sample was broadened to include a further ten pharmacy educators. In the third phase, a purpose-designed, qualitative questionnaire was used to extend the study sample to all pharmacy educators in South Africa. A convenience sampling approach was used in both the second and third phases of the study. Thematic analysis and interpretation of the narrative interview and focus group transcripts and the questionnaire responses were conducted using qualitative data analysis software – Atlas.ti®. A multiplicity of self-perceived professional identities was described. However, all of these were multi-faceted and could be situated on a continuum between pharmacist identity on one end and academic identity on the other. In addition, six key determinants were recognised as underpinning the participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. These included three structural determinants: expected role; knowledge base; and practice, and three determinants relating to the emotional dimensions and agency of professional identity: professional status; passions; and satisfiers. The professional identity of the participants had been formed through membership of multiple pharmacy-related communities of practice and continued to be sustained through a nexus of multi-membership. There was extensive support by the participants for the concept of pharmaceutical care; however, it did not impact extensively on their role as pharmacy educators. Furthermore, many expressed concern around the use of the term ‘pharmaceutical care’: its definition; its lack of penetration into, and implementation within the practice environment; and even its relevance to the South African healthcare context. Many of the participants perceived the professional development of future pharmacists to be integral to their role as educators, and was often their source of greatest professional satisfaction. However, concern was also expressed at the dissonance that students were perceived to experience, sometimes, because of the incongruities that they are taught and what they experience in practice. This study has afforded pharmacy educators in South Africa an opportunity to understand better “who” they are as professionals, and to reflect on their role as educators and as role models for future pharmacist. Moreover, the findings contribute to a collective understanding of the professional identity of pharmacy educators and socialisation of pharmacy students into the profession. The insights and recommendations emerging from the study have the potential to make academic pharmacy a more attractive career choice which may have positive implications for the future attraction and retention of pharmacists to academic posts within universities.

The Swedish pharmacy market has been state regulated for many years. In early 21st century, the Swedish government made a proposal to deregulate the pharmacy market in order to make a reform that would make privatization of pharmacies a possibility. The reason behind this change of the pharmacy market from state perspective was to create better service for the public. The Swedish government hoped that the change would result in increasing service selection, increased accessibility and a lower cost of non-prescription and prescription medicine. Private operators need approval from the Swedish Health Department before they can pursue their own establishment. When deregulation was finalized, many private operators opened privately owned pharmacies. The purpose of this study is to create insight on how the organizational change has evolved since the deregulation of the pharmacy market. It is also important to find out how the organizational change of the pharmacy market has affected the framework of pharmacists as an occupation. The perception of Pharmacist’ labour and changes on the profession as a whole is also studied. The study has been conducted using qualitative method to collect empirical data. Interviews have been made by conducting structured interviews with six local pharmacists. The empirical data has been analyzed by using the theory of professions. The theories of profession is used to explain pharmacists as a professions. In addition to organizational change, the study reviews pharmacist perspective, interpretation and valuation of their everyday life on the work arena. The pharmacists reveal several changes in their work life. Today they have bigger opportunities to choose employer, where before it was only one, today there are a lot of private pharmacies. That means they also can decide working hours because all the pharmacies have different working hours. Their perspectives are formulated in ways that show new routines and way of work. Due to the free market and competition between pharmacies, focus has shifted towards increased sale perspective. Pharmacist acknowledge that even though they are a profession, they feel that they have a higher workload, often less time with clients and sense of being a sales person.