1.

Community Pharmacy
Community pharmacy is the health professional's most accessible to the
public. They provide medicines according to a prescription or, when legally
permitted, sell them without a prescription. Apart from ensuring an accurate
supply of suitable products, their professional activities also cover patient
counseling while dispensing prescription and non-prescription drugs, drug
information to health professionals, patients and the general public, and
participation in health promotion programs. They maintain relationships with
other health professionals in primary health care.

1.1 Recipe processing

The pharmacist verifies the legality, safety and accuracy of the prescription
order, checks the patient's drug records before issuing the prescription (when
the records are kept in the pharmacy), ensures that the dispensed drug quantity
is accurate, and decides whether the drug should be handed over to the patient,
with appropriate counseling, by a pharmacist. In many countries, community
pharmacists are in a unique position to be fully aware of the patient's past and
current drug history and, consequently, can provide important advice to the
prescriber.
1.2 Patient care or clinical pharmacy

Pharmacists seek to collect and integrate information about a patient's drug

history, clarify the patient's understanding of the intended dosing regimen and
method of administration, and advise patients of drug precautions, and in
some countries, monitor and evaluate therapeutic response.
1.3 Monitoring drug utilization

Pharmacists may participate in arrangements to monitor drug use, such as

practical research projects, and schemes for analyzing prescriptions for
monitoring adverse drug reactions.
1.4 Small scale manufacture of medicines

Pharmacists everywhere are constantly preparing medicines in pharmacies.

This allows them to adapt drug formulation to individual patient needs. New
developments in pharmaceuticals and drug delivery systems may extend the
need for individually tailored drugs and thereby increase the need for
pharmacists to find the right pharmaceutical formulation. In some countries,
both developed and developing, pharmacists are involved in the small-scale
manufacture of pharmaceuticals, which must conform to manufacturing
guidelines and distribution practices.
1.5 Traditional and alternative medicine

In some countries, pharmacists provide traditional medicines and issue

homeopathic prescriptions.
1.6 Responding to symptoms of minor illness

The pharmacist receives requests from community members for advice on

a variety of symptoms and, when indicated, refers questions to the doctor. If
symptoms associated with mild disease are self-limiting, the pharmacist may
provide non-prescription medications, with advice to consult a medical
practitioner if symptoms persist for more than a few days. Alternatively, the
pharmacist can provide advice without supplying drugs.
1.7 Inform health care professionals and the public

Pharmacists can compile and maintain information about all medicines,

and especially on newly introduced medicines, provide this information that is
necessary for other health care professionals and patients, and use it in
promoting rational drug use, by providing advice and explanations to
physicians and community members.
1.8 Health promotion

Pharmacists can take part in health promotion campaigns, local and

national, on a wide range of health-related topics, and especially on drug-
 related topics (for example, rational drug use, alcohol abuse, tobacco use,
prohibiting people using drugs during pregnancy, abuse of organic solvents ,
prevention of toxins) or topics related to other health problems (diarrhea,
tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV / AIDS infection) and family planning. They can
also take part in the education of local community groups on health
promotion, and disease prevention campaigns, such as the Expanded
Immunization Program, and the malaria and blindness program.
1.9 Housekeeping services

In some countries, pharmacists provide counseling and supply services for

residential homes for the elderly, and other long-term patients. In some
countries, policies are being developed whereby pharmacists will visit certain
categories of home-bound patients to provide counseling services that patients
will receive for which they can visit pharmacies.
1.10 Agricultural and veterinary practice

Pharmacists provide veterinary medicines and animal feed medicines.