Viewpoints

Don't let the prescriber's hostility stop you from doing the right thing. As the pharmacist, you're the Rx expert.

How much do you identify with your work? Does your role as a pharmacist determine your sense of self? Be careful what you tell yourself. Maybe think again.

Your district manager is bashing you with metrics at the expense of your patients and pharmacy practice. You're in professional hell. It may be time to activate plan B.

The year-long CPE series will include knowledge-based education in the magazine and online; online interactive cases; and live MTM and motivational interviewing training at regional meetings.

Be ready for the con artists, 'cause they're gonna show up.

An 89-year-old woman walked 3,200 miles in 14 months for a cause she believed in - and then got herself hauled off to jail for reading the Declaration of Independence in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. If she could show up for her cause, suggests Kim Ankenbruck, RPh, what are we willing to do for ours?

Now you see it, now you don't . . . the big pharmacy school con

The view from another zoo.

One chain used the legal system to tell its pharmacists how it really felt. They got the message.

As hospitals face decreased reimbursements, pharmacist involvement in pre- and post-discharge medication reconciliation is more important than ever.

Two big causes drive NCPA's new president.

An accurate medication history for hospital patients is the product of teamwork shared by pharmacists, physicians, and nurses. The pharmacist must champion this process for it to work smoothly.

Which way does the FDA spin the issue of opiate use in this country? Try both.

As pharmacists switch from reimbursement based on a fee-for-service model to value-based care, these best practices can help maximize efficiency despite budget constraints and lean staffs.

Asking whether hydrocodone should be rescheduled is only the beginning.

In the wake of last year's fungal meningitis tragedy, the Specialty Sterile Pharmaceutical Society brings a new voice to an industry under fire.

Popular contributor "Goose" Rawlings offers a simple solution to a universal problem.

How can an independent pharmacy survive in the face of competition from the mega-chains? Here's a clue.

When it comes to knowledge of medications and their actions, pharmacists have it way over most physicians. For the sake of the patient, you have to speak up, whether the doc likes it or not.

Through thick and through thin, you're gonna go through it together.

Overweight diabetes patients often look for answers in their drugstores' weight-loss aisles, where so-called natural products are available OTC. Not all these products are safe, and many patients don't realize it.

A resourceful community pharmacist and his PG intern take stock of their patients' knowledge and come up with some dismaying data.

Drug-disposal options in the United States are still evolving, and patients often do not know proper procedures. As the most accessible of healthcare professionals, pharmacists have a responsibility to promote best practices.

The AMA raised a ruckus over "drug store intrusion into medical practice." Turns out, lots of folks may have missed the point.

While FDA has done little to combat tobacco use, manufacturers are targeting young African Americans with saturation advertising, using menthol cigarettes as bait.

When frightened girls come back from emergency trips to Mexico and ask you how to use an off-label drug as an "abortion pill," what are you going to tell them?

The entire multidisciplinary healthcare team can be compared to a football team. And pharmacists are called upon to play several positions.

Massachusetts' Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has instituted a policy shift excluding coverage of prescription drugs compounded for adults. Plaintiffs call this "a callous decision" and "a major blow" to the state's many patients who depend on compounded medications.

The War on Drugs began a century ago. It's still going strong -- and so is the traffic in illegal drugs. What's up with that?