La Floresta, Uruguay

Elizabeth Ravera, Pharmacist

Area of work: Community pharmacist, pharmacy manager, University Professor

It is worth noting that in my country, pharmacy ownership is not restricted to pharmacists, nor is the permanent presence of a pharmacist obligatory in pharmacies. For this reason, most pharmacies do not have a pharmacist on duty.

My pharmacy is located 56 Km from the capital city, in a beach town in the East of Uruguay. This is a Summer holiday destination and has a very small resident population during low season (March to December) and a population of approximately 10,000 inhabitants in Summer (January and February).

In May 2005, my pharmacy received the ISO 9001:2000 certification, being the first pharmacy in Uruguay to receive this quality certification. This certification refers to the following processes performed at the pharmacy: dispensing medicines (including pharmaceutical care), health education activities in the community and participation in international projects.

Describe your daily work routine
 
Every day of the week is different for me because, apart from working at the pharmacy, I also work at the pharmaceutical association and the University. My eagerness to support the adequate training of the new generations of pharmacists prompted me to work as a professor.  I teach the subject of “Pharmaceutical Care” to pharmacy undergraduates at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of the Republic.

As an example, I will explain my routine on Tuesdays:

In the morning, I attend the weekly meeting of the National Technical Group on behalf of the Association of Chemists and Pharmacists of Uruguay. There, I work together with representatives of the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy, the Department of Medicines of the Ministry of Health, the Direction of Public Health and our host, the national PAHO office. After the meeting, I drive for 50 Km to the beach town of La Floresta, where my pharmacy is located.

When I arrive at the pharmacy, the staff that worked in the morning shift inform me of what happened. I also deal with the wholesalers and carry out tasks related to Pharmaceutical Care. The most frequent consultations are about hypertension and arthritic pain. At La Floresta, most permanent residents are people who have already retired. Therefore, we have a number of elderly patients who take several medicines.

I also collaborate in the planning of health educational activities that we carry out in the community. I meet Dr. Yolanda Farré (a Paediatrician and Cardiologist from Pereira Rossell Hospital) and together, we plan how to communicate with children and adolescents about health issues.

The pharmacy staff includes two other pharmacists: one working full-time, whose major roles include dispensing medicines and giving information about the treatment to patients/customers and keeping the individual patients’ pharmacological records, and another one working part-time, mostly in charge of the patients included in the project of the Pharmaceutical Forum of the Americas on “Pharmaceutical Care to Hypertensive Patients”. I am responsible for the work of these two pharmacists and for defining the lines of action of the pharmacy.

We have a very good relationship with the doctors of the area and with doctors and nutritionists from Montevideo, with whom we have joint projects.  We also work a lot with children from the primary and the secondary schools, as well as with a local association of elderly people, to whom we give informative/educational presentations about several health topics. 

What are the greatest difficulties you encounter in your work environment?

The greatest difficulty I encounter is the seasonal variation of the population, with a very small resident population during most of the year. Being a beach town, La Floresta has approximately 2000 inhabitants for 10 months, split between two pharmacies.   The other difficulty I find is my personal lack of time to dedicate myself to pharmaceutical care activities as I would wish. However, with the assistance of my two colleagues, we can ensure a correct dispensing of medicines to all patients, as well as their treatment follow-up.

What is the greatest motivation in your profession?

The greatest motivation of my job and my profession is to see the appreciation and gratitude of the patients/users for any of the activities we carry out at the pharmacy. That really makes us feel that it is worth investing time and effort doing our job the way we do. That’s when I start thinking of the next service to provide.

If you could have one wish granted, what would it be?

My greatest wish would be to achieve a major transformation of Pharmacy in Uruguay, so that it becomes an integral part of the new National Health System in an effective and efficient manner. I also wish pharmacists were considered health professionals by the authorities and the population in general, and that pharmacies could not function without the daily and permanent contribution of our profession (otherwise they would be shops, and not pharmacies). This is what I have been striving for and working on for eight years, and it is great to see that each day there are a few more people sharing this philosophy.

Pharmacist Elizabeth Ravera dispensing medicines to a patient.