Clinical Pharmacist - Outpatient

Pharmacy Clinical Duties

Duties include, but are not limited to:

Clinical: The primary function of a clinical pharmacist is to assure the safe and appropriate use of medications and be an advocate of rational drug therapy through the following list of example activities:

1. Participates in all tasks related to medication preparation and dispensing.
2. Provides appropriate selection of drug therapy based upon the pharmaceutical principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics; monitoring for efficacy, side effects and clinical outcome; and advises prescribers as appropriate.
3. Provides patient-specific therapeutic drug monitoring and communicates relevant findings and/or recommendations to other health care providers in charge of the patient both orally and in writing. Monitoring will include prospective and retrospective review and intervention in:
• Therapeutic appropriateness of a patient's drug regimen
• Therapeutic duplication in the patient's drug regimen
• Appropriateness of the route and method of administration
• Degree of patient compliance with the prescribed drug regimen
• Drug-drug, drug-food, drug-laboratory, or drug-disease interactions
• Allergies
• Clinical and pharmacokinetic laboratory data to evaluate the efficacy of drug therapy and to anticipate side effects, toxicity, or adverse effects
• Physical signs and clinical symptoms relevant to the patient's drug therapy
4. Provides medication counseling to patients.
5. Conducts comprehensive appraisals of patient's health status by completing medication histories including patient interviews.
6. Serves as a drug information resource by providing up-to-date drug information to prescribers, other health care professionals, patients and caregivers.
7. Participates in the medication reconciliation process, in accordance with facility processes:
• Pharmacists under a scope of practice (CPP): when acting as a provider, the CPP will complete a medication reconciliation including updating the medication profile to reflect an accurate, active list of VA and non-VA medications. This may include adding non-VA medications or discontinuing duplicate medications or those the patient is not taking.
• Pharmacists not under a scope of practice: when NOT acting as a provider, pharmacists will participate in the medication reconciliation process.
8. Assesses drug safety and efficacy, including evaluation of physical symptoms.
9. Reports adverse drug events (ADE), near misses, and medication errors. Documents findings according to service/facility procedures.
10. Participates in the medical center medication utilization evaluation (MUE) program.
11. May complete non-formulary and medication approval consults. Recommends formulary alternatives when appropriate. Reviews orders for compliance with VA Criteria for Use and non-formulary drug restrictions.
12. Implements VA medical facility policies including therapeutic interchanges and automatic substitutions (e.g., Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee activities).
13. Manages recalls and medication shortage situations by substituting alternate dosage strengths and instructions of the same medication to equal the prescribed dose and schedule.
14. Enters supply orders to support medication compliance and accurate medication administration (e.g., syringes, needles, tablet splitters), in accordance with VA medical facility policy.
15. Manages various actions, as appropriate, for medication orders to include: flagging prescriptions, managing view alerts, using the "hold medication" function, etc.
16. Extends refills until next scheduled appointment under the provider's name per facility policy.
17. Serves as a role model and preceptor to pharmacy students and residents.
18. Assumes an active role in staff development of peers and provides educational in-services to nursing, medical staff or to other ancillary services.
19. The pharmacist is responsible for maintaining his/her professional competency by keeping abreast of current medical and pharmaceutical literature, new drugs and therapies, and applies this knowledge in his/her daily duties.

Work Schedule: Full-time; Monday-Friday, rotating tours, weekends and holidays

Functional Statement #: 000000

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

US Department of Veterans Affairs