Pharmacy Scope of Practice

Learning Goal: I’m working on a health & medical writing question and need guidance to help me learn.

Instructions: Read Florida Statute 465.003 (13), definition of “Practice of the profession of pharmacy” and address the following scenario in a discussion-based post.

Covid-19 has been an unprecedented situation for our healthcare system. Accordingly, many professions, including pharmacy, have necessitated to alter their scope of practice and assume new roles to assist patients and relieve the healthcare system’s burden. For example, pharmacists are now performing antibody testing, diagnostic testing, recommending alternative therapies both preventive and for treatment, administering EUA vaccines, initiating time sensitive antivirals, serving as stewards for off-label treatments, compounding hand sanitizer and unapproved medications, counseling and selling PPE, dispensing off-label drugs for patients (hydroxycholorquine), recruiting convalescent plasma patients for donation and consenting patients for clinical trials.

Assignment Question: Based on the definition of the “Practice of the profession of pharmacy” in FL, list and describe three activities pharmacists are doing during the pandemic that are clearly within the scope of practice (3 points) and list and describe three activities that are questionable / not (3 points). For those activities that fall outside the scope of defined practice, should pharmacists be advocating for these expanded rights or should they pursue other more meaningful activities, and if so, which ones (3 points)?

Your post should be approximately 250-500 words.

Technical Information:

• All posts MUST reference some part of the Statute (FL 465.003 (13)). Please use statutory language in the definition to support your position statements.
• Below you can find the Statue:
  “Practice of the profession of pharmacy” includes compounding, dispensing, and consulting concerning contents, therapeutic values, and uses of any medicinal drug; consulting concerning therapeutic values and interactions of patent or proprietary preparations, whether pursuant to prescriptions or in the absence and entirely independent of such prescriptions or orders; and conducting other pharmaceutical services. For purposes of this subsection, the term “other pharmaceutical services” means monitoring the patient’s drug therapy and assisting the patient in the management of his or her drug therapy, and includes reviewing, and making recommendations regarding, the patient’s drug therapy and health care status in communication with the patient’s prescribing health care provider as licensed under chapter 458, chapter 459, chapter 461, or chapter 466, or a similar statutory provision in another jurisdiction, or such provider’s agent or such other persons as specifically authorized by the patient; and initiating, modifying, or discontinuing drug therapy for a chronic health condition under a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement. This subsection may not be interpreted to permit an alteration of a prescriber’s directions, the diagnosis or treatment of any disease, the initiation of any drug therapy, the practice of medicine, or the practice of osteopathic medicine, unless otherwise permitted by law or specifically authorized by s. 465.1865 or s. 465.1895. The term “practice of the profession of pharmacy” also includes any other act, service, operation, research, or transaction incidental to, or forming a part of, any of the foregoing acts, requiring, involving, or employing the science or art of any branch of the pharmaceutical profession, study, or training, and shall expressly permit a pharmacist to transmit information from persons authorized to prescribe medicinal drugs to their patients. The practice of the profession of pharmacy also includes the administration of vaccines to adults pursuant to s. 465.189, the testing or screening for and treatment of minor, nonchronic health conditions pursuant to s. 465.1895, and the preparation of prepackaged drug products in facilities holding Class III institutional pharmacy permits. The term also includes the ordering and evaluating of any laboratory or clinical testing; conducting patient assessments; and modifying, discontinuing, or administering medicinal drugs pursuant to s. 465.0125 by a consultant pharmacist.

• Answer previewAccording to Florida Statute 465.003(13) on the practice of the profession in pharmacy, pharmacists are supposed to act within their scope of practice in all situations. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, pharmacists acted within and outside their scope of practice. Through disease management education and counseling, pharmacists helped educate people on ways to manage coronavirus disease like wearing masks, keeping social distance, and use of sanitizers. (Florida Statute 465.003(13). Moreover, in administering vaccinations, pharmacists all over the world engaged in vaccinating the public with the available coronavirus vaccines. Also, by providing medication counseling to patients, pharmacists helped advise the public on the medications to use in case one is infected with the coronavirus (Florida Statute 465.003(13).

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