Pharmacist, Palliative Care

Calvary Position

Provide palliative care for hospitalized patients and their families facing serious medical problems. Participate in comprehensive clinical evaluation and care of patients and their families. Provide expertise in medication use and monitoring, symptom management, and assessment of the risks and benefits of therapy and provision of continuity of care. Provide clinical education and mentorship to clinicians and trainees. Ensure compliance with practice standards and codes.

Function as a core clinical team member of the Calvary interdisciplinary team. Assist with patient care for palliative care patients as included below:

• Review medication histories and assess the appropriateness of current medications.
• Review medications for potential or actual drug related problems, including but not limited to drug-disease interactions and/or adverse drug events.
• Order, interpret and evaluate appropriate imaging, diagnostics, and laboratory data, including but not limited to pharmacogenetic testing, as appropriate according to regulation and policy.
• Assess disease states, symptoms, and patient and family needs.
• Collaborate in determining and discussing appropriate patient centered goals of care.
• Recommend appropriate use of medications to support goals of care as allowable according to regulation and institutional policy.
• Monitor therapy relative to pain and other symptom management.
• Provide education to patients and families regarding the use of both pharmacologic and non- pharmacologic interventions
• Document patient care activities in a manner consistent with hospital standards.
• Recognize the need for collaboration with other disciplines and refer as appropriate to relieve suffering.

Recommend and implement risk mitigation strategies and monitoring to optimize safe and effective use of medications. Provide cross-training for other team members in pharmacotherapeutic concepts related to palliative care and receive cross-training from other disciplines. Ensure that patients and caregivers understand and follow the directions relative to medication use. Provide recommendations for appropriate use of nonstandard dosage forms and routes of administration. Address financial aspects of medication use by considering formularies of hospital, hospice and patients' prescription insurance. Assist in ensuring safe use of high-risk medications including dosing, administration and disposal. Reviews and evaluates medication orders by authorized practitioners and dispenses medications as per established procedure. Assist in development of protocols and clinical pathways to improve care for palliative patients. Play an active role in bridging the knowledge and best practices of pain and palliative care pharmacotherapy into clinical practice and research. Engage in both didactic and experiential interprofessional palliative education. Adhere to hospital policies, procedures, and quality/safety standards. Represent the team locally, regionally and nationally by presenting platform and poster presentations. Serve on committees and work groups. Maintains in-patient records, computerized and manually as required. Prepares departmental reports as assigned.