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Healthy people

  public health is an art of preventing ill-health, protecting and promoting the health and well-being and prolonging life through organized efforts. Public health is emphasized collective responsibility and is population based. It recognizes the key role of key role of the state to the well-being of the society.  It also emphasizes partnerships with all stakeholders who contribute to the health of the population (Frieden, 2010). Public health practitioners, researchers, and educators work with populations and communities to identify problems and implement large-scale solutions. While public health activities involve helping persons, it also involves dealing with wider factors that affect the health of many individuals.

Public health achieves its goals through organized, interdisciplinary efforts that focus on multiple determinants of health such as behavioral, biological, environmental, living and working conditions social, cultural family and community networks in populations and communities at risk for injury and disease (Meyerson et al., 2013). Public health mission is attained through the application of disease prevention and health promotion interventions and technologies designed to enhance and improve the quality of life. Today, public health covers areas as wide-ranging as a chronic disease, epigenetics, and disaster response, the science of aging, tobacco control mental health, and injury prevention and refugee health.

There are various essential services of public health that pharmacists can contribute to. The role of pharmacists now goes beyond the conventional product-oriented task of distributing and dispensing medicines and health supplies. Today, pharmacist’s services include more administrative, patient-oriented and public health functions. There are many functions of public health that can benefit from the unique expertise of pharmacists. Such include access to care, pharmacotherapy and prevention services. As a pharmacist student, I have a significant role apart from dispensing medicine. I can be an accessible resource for medication and health information. My expertise is invaluable due to his centralized placement in the community. Pharmacists have progressively carried out the additional task to ensure the quality of the products they supply.

Question 2

Micro & Macro Levels in Public Health

The micro level in public health focuses on individual patients while macro level public health focuses on a community or population.  In the micro level of public health, a pharmacist may be involved in the processing of prescriptions, care of patients and monitoring of drug utilization. A pharmacist can verify the legality appropriateness and safety the prescription order as well as patient medication record before dispensing medication (Agomo, 2012).

At this level, pharmacists also seek to collect and integrate patients’ information about medication, drug clarify the patient’s understanding regimen, history, and method of administration, and counsel the patient on drug related issues. In the macro levels, a pharmacist is involved a broad array of functions and expertise, including formulating public policies, in collaboration with other stakeholders, identifying health problems and priorities through evaluation and monitoring of populations and communities at risk and assuring that community have access to proper and cost-effective care, including disease prevention services and  health promotion services (Krska & Morecroft, 2010).

Question 3

It encompasses areas of early and middle childhood, adolescent health, global health, health information technology, genomics, and hearing and other sensory disorders, healthcare-associated infections, older adults, weight status, social determinants of health and quality of life and well-being. Pharmacists have a critical role to play in these areas (Offiong et al., 2011). Pharmacists should engage in research activities to promote the development of knowledge in global health issues. Secondly, pharmacists should utilize health information technology in the promotion of health. Schools of pharmacy should engage in a variety of innovative programs for students to provide experiences for their students.

References

Agomo, C. O. (2012). The role of community pharmacists in public health: a scoping review of the literature. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 3(1), 25-33.

Frieden, T. R. (2010). A framework for public health action: the health impact pyramid. American journal of public health, 100(4), 590-595.

Krska, J., & Morecroft, C. W. (2010). Views of the general public on the role of pharmacy in public health. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 1(1), 33-38.

Meyerson, B. E., Ryder, P. T., & Richey-Smith, C. (2013). Achieving pharmacy-based public health: a call for public health engagement. Public Health Reports, 140-143.

Offiong, C. Y., Oji, V. U., Bunyan, W., Lewis, J. A., Moore, C., & Olusanya, O. A. (2011). The role of colleges and schools of pharmacy in the advent of Healthy People 2020. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 75(3), 56.

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