An unassuming pair: pharmacists and disasters

摘要

Pharmacists have traditionally been viewed as either an unnecessary resource or as a support service for health responses to disasters and emergencies. However, this mixed-methods, multi-phase international study has provided the evidence that this perception of pharmacy and disasters is distorted, outdated and undervalues the contributions pharmacists are making to disaster health response and recovery. Pharmacists are an untapped resource in disaster health management that if better integrated could significantly increase the available healthcare resources in a disaster and contribute to the healthcare system resilience. As a disaster community, we need to wider our lens of disaster health and look beyond the obvious tertiary and ambulatory care to see the valuable contributions primary care has in mitigating, preparing, responding and recovering from disasters and emergencies. Please refer to the doctoral thesis for references.