The pharmacist's responsibilities involve many different areas. The primary one is to dispense the right quantity and dose of medication to the correct patient. Because it is imperative the patient understand how to take his medicine, an interpreter who speaks the local language will handle the dispensing process.

Additional responsibilities include organizing the medicines in an orderly fashion and knowing where items are located for quick availability to nurses and doctors. At the end of each clinic day, medicines should be neatly returned to where they will be safely kept overnight. This will vary depending upon the location of your team. In addition, it is helpful to briefly survey the inventory of heavily used items at the end of the day so that the medical staff may be advised of current supply status. Because the pharmacy area may become the bottleneck in the flow of patients through the clinic, it is important to be well organized.

Patient medical record cards bearing the individuals' prescriptions for medicine will be brought to the pharmacy table by the patient or an HMTI aide. It is necessary to have an "in" box for these cards. Each patient and prescription will be assigned a number. New cards should be placed under existing cards in this box in order to first fill prescriptions for those waiting the longest.

Equipment Needed

• Clean hands.

• Clean surface/counting tray on which to count.

 Steps to be Taken

• Wash hands.

• Find same medication and dosage as prescribed by doctor.

• Label envelope/prescription slip with medication name (in English), dosage, number of pills, and mark times to be taken.

• Count required number of pills on clean surface/counting tray � touching as little as possible with your fingers.

• Place pills in envelope.

• Recheck bottle with prescription.

• Put in plastic basin with medical record card for interpreter to dispense.

• Replace stock bottle to its proper place.

• Pharmacy area must be cleaned and all bottles returned to proper location at the end of the day.

Packaging of Medicines

It is helpful to start each clinic session with a quantity of prepackaged medicines for heavily used items (e.g., Tylenol, antacids, vitamins or as directed by the medical director). Aides may help with this task to expedite the process.

Remember: You are the final step in the clinic process. Double check your work. Make sure that you are dispensing the correct medicine and the correct strength of medicine to the right patient.