Overview of Population-Based Care

Public health focuses on the promotion of health in the community. It is to prevent diseases as well as illnesses that could happen to everyone. A professional team of health care that includes doctors, nurses, and pharmacists with several roles is responsible for the health of the public in other words, population-based care is one of the major responsibilities of these groups of professionals. These professions are required to interact with the public, hence the availability of professionals in their duty sites is a basic requirement to ensure the patients achieve optimal health outcomes.

In addition, the health of an individual is not always depending on their behavior, but it is also affected by the social, economic, and environmental factors that can influence their health. The population-based care is interrelated with the daily roles of a pharmacist. With this statement, a pharmacist has a unique professional ability in improving the health of the public.

Dispensing medications will always be the main role of the pharmacy to ensure the drug availability in the hospital as well as in the drug store (Al-Arifi, 2012a, p.

323-330). However, it is also a crucial role for a pharmacist to be able to give understandable basic drug information to the patients in terms of the drug usage, the side effects, and drug-food interactions (Al-Arifi, 2012b, p.323-330). By doing this, patients will at least get to know the type of medications taken and be aware of the usage of these medications.

There are several kinds of research show that pharmacist has been dedicated as one of the most trusted and reliable professional’s health care person consistently throughout the years, and the public has a high level of satisfaction with the pharmacist services (Kelly et al, 2014a, p.

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239-247). For example, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, most of the patients were satisfied with the performances of the pharmacists and this reflected them as drug experts (Al-Arifi, 2012c, p.323-330). Besides that, a study has been conducted to determine the likelihood of the public making use of the pharmacy services. A study shows that the respondents were feeling comfortable with the services given by their respective pharmacists that have their medical information to provide better care (Kelly et al, 2014b, p.239-247). It shows that pharmacist has the profession in convincing the community to improve their health both physically and mentally.

Thus, counseling the patients will be considered an important role for a community pharmacist. It is a big challenge in improving the health of an entire community or population. To provide better health to the public, pharmacists are required routinely to grab the opportunities to approach the patients or the public by explaining that they are not only dispensing medications pharmacists are also involved in educating people on the knowledge, skills and the unique abilities of a pharmacist have (Kelly et al, 2014b, p.239-247). As a result of doing this, patients will have a better understanding of the role of the pharmacist and will often meet their pharmacist to get some health advice. Furthermore, there is also a pharmacist who says that it is better to talk directly with the patients instead of just looking at the paper with the patient’s medication history (Haynes, 2012a, p.1152–1159). Counseling sessions would encourage the family members to be present with the patient at the time to assist the patient with handling medications after returning home (Haynes, 2012b, p.1152–1159).

Apart from that, a pharmacist should also be role models to the public by involving themselves in physical activity. The public should be encouraged to participate in physical activities that are at zero cost but will benefit them. Generally, physical activity can reduce the risk of people getting chronic diseases provided that they are not smoking and having a healthy diet lifestyle (DOH, 2004a). Physical activities are not only focused on youth but also the older adults as these activities would help them to maintain mobility through a daily activity that can improve their strength and coordination besides preventing specific diseases and bad conditions (DOH, 2004b).