Pharmacy's Scope of Practice and Role
in Interprofessional Healthcare

Role of Pharmacy in Interdisciplinary Health Care

Pharmacists are the most accessible members of the health care team in the community setting. Pharmacists provide a broad array of pharmaceutical services for the purpose of achieving specific therapeutic outcomes that contribute to an improved quality of life for patients. Pharmacists care for patients across the lifespan, from pediatrics to older adults. Pharmacists are integral members of team-based, patient-centered care teams, and they practice in a variety of settings, including:

• Community pharmacies (e.g., independent and chain pharmacies)
• Specialty pharmacies
• Hospitals and health-systems
• Ambulatory care clinics
• Long term care organizations
• Managed care organizations
• Home care
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Government health departments
• Government agencies (e.g., FDA, NIH, CDC)
• Academia and health professions education
• Research organizations
• Professional organizations
• And more!

Depending on their practice setting, pharmacists’ responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Medication therapy management
• Identifying, preventing, and resolving potential and actual medication-related problems
• Optimizing medication therapy, including deprescribing
• Monitoring medication therapy for efficacy and toxicity (e.g., drug interactions, allergies, adverse drug events)
• Enhancing drug adherence
• Patient education
• Wellness initiatives
• Healthcare screenings
• Immunizations
• Chronic disease state management
• Pharmacogenomics
• Prescribing medications under collaborative practice agreement
• Drug development
• Research (e.g., health outcomes, disease state management, practice transformation, drug use evaluation, pharmacoeconomic analysis)
• Provide referrals to different healthcare providers (e.g., referral for fertility care; referral to emergency department)
• Healthcare informatics
• Health related community service
• Dispensing medications

Doctor of Pharmacy accreditation standards emphasize the importance of interprofessional team-based care, stating that in addition to being APPE ready, pharmacy students must be able to provide patient care in a variety of healthcare settings and contribute as a member of an interprofessional collaborative patient care team upon graduation. Students are required to have a variety of didactic, simulation, and clinical experiences that allow them to learn with, from, and about students from other healthcare professions so that, upon graduation, they are “able to actively engage and contribute as a healthcare team member by demonstrating core interprofessional competencies.”