Pharmacy Board Holds Grand CPD
Pharmacy Board of Sierra has held a grand Continuous Professional Educational session for all pharmacists in the country, an occasion which is a summation of all 16 sessions held last year to bring pharmacists in the country abreast with their roles, responsibilities, rights and obligations as well as their roles in the protection of the public health of the country. The CPD according to officials at the Pharmacy Board is to also bring pharmacy professionals to speed with current developments in the field of pharmacology at global level. This according to the Registrar of the Board Wiltshire CN Johnson is a novel in the country’s pharmaceutical sector as before this time, pharmacy professionals were left to operate only in the knowledge they acquired at the University. “Those dark ages in the practice of pharmacy in the country have gone†Johnson told his colleagues and adding that as its high time we as primary custodian of drugs and pharmaceuticals learn to respect and play our roles in complement of government’s effort to cleanse the public health of the country.  Â
The programme which hosted more than 250 pharmacists from all over the country at the conference hall of the National School of Nursing saw the pharmacy professionals being schooled in areas of professional pharmaceutical marketing strategies, the dangers of self medication, the changing of attitudes in the profession to meet with expected standards and the need for pharmacists to renew their knowledge in the practice of the profession.
Speaking to colleagues on marketing strategies in pharmaceuticals, Chairman of the education committee at the Pharmaceutical Society of Sierra Leone Ade JP Johnson admonished colleagues to take to accepted standards in marketing their products. He told them to relinquish subversive sales and marketing strategies that smirk of corruption and mischief.
Corruption he said is the bedrock for underdevelopment and that if for any reason the pharmacy profession must succeed, then there is need for the adoption of serine marketing means for pharmaceutical products which he said are a most valuable to human existence and survival.
Lectures were also given on the dangers of self medication which it was established is most common amongst the Sierra Leone public; coming with its attendant adverse effects that have the potential to inhibit adversely on the country’s public health drive. Pharmacists were encouraged to be proactive and resort to community pharmacy, taking the patients as very important as pharmacies are the primary point of call for most patients in the country.   Â
The dangers of self medication it was established, is not limited to only the gullible public but that professionals must also guard against it, asking them to spread the idea of diagnosis and prescription to the numerous clients that visit their point of sales on a daily basis.
Invited Guest Speaker on the occasion, Mr. Philip Conteh, head of Attitudinal and Behavioral Change Secretariat at the office of the president said the need for pharmacists to change their attitudes hinges on a national call in the agenda for change. According to him, the changing of the attitudes of pharmacists in the country has a lot to do with the general growth and development in the country’s health sector which he said has suffered for too long because of the unholy conducts of health care professionals in the country towards their god-given privilege to care for the health of the nation.
“Changing our attitudes today as health care service providers will mean setting the foundation for our country to emerge from its long stay at the bottom of the United Nations Human development index†Philip Conteh told the mammoth gathering of pharmacists in Freetown; commenting further that the President is very much proud of such ventures undertaken by the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone; which he said goes a long way to ensuring that agenda for change on health is requisitely achievedâ€.
The gathering of pharmacy professionals also saw the unveiling of the various learning opportunities available to them both in academic institutions and at other informal learning points which they can use to improve on their knowledge and skills in the practice of their profession. Â
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