Practicing health promotion through pharmacy counseling activities

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Pharmacy Practice
• Public Health

Background:

• The U.S. healthcare system is undergoing significant changes, increasing the need for health promotion.
• Interprofessional healthcare teams, including doctors and nurses, are common, but some professionals are underutilized.
• Pharmacists in community settings, like pharmacies, represent an underutilized resource for health promotion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of pharmacists in health promotion activities.
• To highlight the role of pharmacists in patient counseling for health promotion.
• To examine how health promotion educators can train pharmacists for these roles.

Main Methods:

• Review of current health promotion activities performed by pharmacists.
• Discussion of potential new health promotion roles for pharmacists.
• Inclusion of hypothetical scenarios and models to illustrate pharmacist-led health promotion.
• Emphasis on the role of health promotion educators in pharmacist training.

Main Results:

• Pharmacists can engage in various health promotion activities, particularly through patient counseling.
• Community-based pharmacists are well-positioned to contribute significantly to public health.
• Effective training by health promotion educators can enhance pharmacists' health promotion capabilities.

Conclusions:

• Pharmacists are valuable, underutilized assets in health promotion efforts.
• Pharmacist-led patient counseling is a key strategy for improving population health.
• Enhanced training programs are needed to fully leverage pharmacists in health promotion.