Shedding the light on Pharmacists’ roles during COVID-19 global pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: (Background)The role of pharmacists revolves around providing the highest levels of care to society and ensuring the provision of medicine to all patients. However, with the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID −19), pharmacists as a very important part of healthcare professionals’ team are responsible for fighting against the disease regardless of their setting of practice. The role of pharmacists will undergo a little change to extend and include other roles in order to ensure the safety of the community and limit the virus spread. Also, they will be required to obtain information from reliable sources, and to be up to date, so they can be reliable advisors to the community and raise their awareness. Objectives: The purpose of this review is to highlight community and hospital pharmacists’ roles during (COVID-19) global pandemic, and to clearly illustrate how they are contributing to maintain pharmacy services continuity, supporting other healthcare professionals, and facilitating the patient’s education. Summary: Clinical pharmacists provide direct patient care through monitoring adverse drug reactions, ensuring individualized treatment, performing evidence-based practice, and evaluating drugs in clinical trials. On the other hand, community pharmacists which are the most accessible healthcare providers by the community increase their awareness regarding the preventive measures, balance medicines supply and demand, provide drive-thru and home delivery services, offer telehealth counselling, psychological support, refer suspected COVID-19 patients, and provide vaccination when available. Conclusion: Innovative pharmacists’ roles have emerged to adapt to changes during COVID-19 pandemic, however, they may be needed in the post COVID-19 world as well.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Clinical pharmacist
• Hospital pharmacist
• Community pharmacist
• Pharmacist role