Is there an area of pharmacy where you help people decrease or stop taking prescriptions by making lifestyle changes?

Shayna,

I love your question!

I think without a medical credential it's possible to get in trouble for "practicing medicine without a license," and would encourage you to research that aspect of things.

There are many different aspects of healthy living. My mom wants a pill for everything, yet, she won't do a few basic stretches that I know would cure her aches and pains! I just came through knee surgery with almost no pain meds afterwards - Ice is awesome! (and free!) Fresh air is also a good cure. Everyone feels good while hiking!

People who have opened my eyes to alternative approaches include a nutritionist, chiropractor, physical therapist, and doctor (rheumatologist). Accupuncture and tai chi also talk about it. These are areas you might want to explore.

It's sad to see people throwing away so much money on Rx meds, especially when they have limited financial resources. Big Pharma is a big business. That is why they advertise so much, so we can go to the doctor and tell the doctor what we need! Reversing that will be a big challenge. I hope you keep trying !

Kim

Love your question and I'm on your side but I think you have a better chance as a personal coach then in a pharmacy. Who knows, maybe one day doctors will consult food experts for the cure instead of subscribing medicine. Why don't you make this your mission :-)

I work with a pharmacist in a primary care clinic. The pharmacist is always looking for ways to decrease our patients medications (more meds doesn't equate to better care). She also meets with patients for 30 - 60 minutes to discuss lifestyle changes including nutrition and exercise. She bills the insurance for her services too. Primary care is a good place for pharmacists to use all of their skills to help patients with health and well being.

I was told (not sure from who), "there's a medicine cabinet in our own bodies, we may as well make use of it". The "Food as medicine" concept has also become part of the primary care conversations. I like this question, thanks for asking it.

Yes, clinical pharmacists do this all the time in the hospital (acute care). In the outpatient setting, look into ambulatory care pharmacists who also do this. Ambulatory care is very similar to what you are looking for. As the pharmacist, you sit down with the patient for 30 minutes to an hour and discuss medication and lifestyle modifications. Depending on where you live, it can be very competitive to get a job as a clinical pharmacist (in the acute care or outpatient setting). If you want to go this route, I would suggest completing a pharmacy residency (PGY1) after graduating pharmacy school. In the meantime, you can even work as a technician in a hospital and see if they hire "medication reconciliation" technicians. Their role is to see what a patient is prescribed versus what they're actually taking. They work with the pharmacist and/or medical team to deescalate (or discontinue) duplicate/unnecessary medications.