Truong H, Bresette JL, and Sellers JA. The Pharmacist in Public Health: Education, Applications, and Opportunities. American Pharmacists Association; 2010, 537pp, $54.95 (hardback), ISBN 9781582121307.

Fadi M. Alkhateeb; Jackie Truong

doi:10.5688/ajpe766118

Traditionally, the profession of pharmacy has been considered an isolated field. The role of pharmacists in public health was never clearly defined as there is not a sufficient amount of textbooks, courses, and training programs that emphasize this area of the profession.¹ The Pharmacists in Public Health: Education, Application, and Opportunities (2010), written by pharmacists, serves as a reference and resource for all individuals interested in the role of pharmacists and public health. The main goals of the book are to alert, educate, promote, and empower the reader to participate in public health opportunities. Because of the broad scope of public health, 59 authors and 40 reviewers contributed in completing the chapters based on their experiences in many different areas of pharmacy practice settings including academia, and local, state, and federal organizations. The objectives include introducing the interchanging relationship between pharmacist and public health, explaining the demand and available positions for pharmacist within public health, and encouraging educators and student pharmacists to be more involve in public health.

The textbook comprises 4 sections that connect and build on each other: Reviewing: Pharmacy in Public Health, Integrating: Pharmacist’s Role in Public Health, Developing: Public Health Pharmacists, and Educating and Serving: Pharmacy in Public Health. There are 22 chapters that are divided unevenly between the 4 sections; with each chapter written by different authors. Each chapter begins with the objectives section that is numbered and ends with the reference section. What catches the reader’s attention is each chapter’s thesis statement, which is boxed, highlighted and appears immediately after the objective section; this gives the readers a broad but precise idea about the most important point that will be discussed in the chapter. Tables, figures, and examples are used consistently throughout the book with titles, explanatory captions, and references correctly cited. The authors integrate “sidebar” boxes throughout the chapter in which they provide true cases and stories of advocate professionals related to the topics that are being discussed within the text. Another interesting point is that toward the end of each chapter of any topic, there are 2 sections that are entitled “Actions for Change Today” and “Conclusion”, which are normally appear at the end of the book. This is creative, because these sections provide readers who are interested recommendations of what should be done in future studies.

The first section of The Pharmacists in Public Health: Education, Application, and Opportunities is composed of 4 chapters (1 through 4). Chapter 1 introduces the interchanging relationship between pharmacists and public health with regard to education, workforce demand, and pharmacists projected roles. Chapter 2 outlines the history and the evolution of both the American pharmacy profession and public health, as well as identifying the major laws that impact the practice of pharmacy particularly in pharmaceutical care. Chapter 3 and 4 focus on the core functions of public health including public health education, development, promotions, and recruitment to achieve specific goals and missions of improving the health of the population as the whole. The overview of pharmacy history and public health from section 1 establishes a foundation that smoothly transitions the reader to the next section.

Section 2, the integrating section, is also the longest section of the book, with 13 chapters discussed. Each chapter describes the specific role of the pharmacist in specific area of public health, such as medication therapy management, medication safety, primary prevention, medication used in the elderly, substance abuse, correctional pharmacy, and more. Although each chapter emphasizes one particular area, the common goal is to address issues such as: the importance of the pharmacists’ involvement, what can be accomplished if the pharmacists make “above and beyond” contributions, what the significant related matters/concerns are, and what the requirements and expectations are for the pharmacist to serve in public health settings.

The third section, The Pharmacists in Public Health: Education, Application, and Opportunities, presents the ongoing professional expansion for pharmacists in public health. This section has 2 chapters (18 and 19). Chapter 18 mainly describes the continuing professional development cycle model and how pharmacists can apply this model to a career in public health. Chapter 19 provides the framework for innovation changes that potentially lead to success in interprofessional practice.

Section 4 comprises the last 3 chapters and provides educational strategies such as adding public health courses in the required curriculum of the pharmacy practice education. The chapters also recognize and emphasize the importance of applying the concepts, resources, and competencies of public health in experimental education. The authors specifically encourage the involvement of student pharmacists by recommending that pharmacists be introduced to the concept of public health during their pharmacy education years.

The Pharmacists in Public Health: Education, Application, and Opportunities is comprehensive and easy to read. Structurally, the book is well organized, and the content is useful as the concepts apply not only to practitioners, but also to student pharmacists, educators, and pharmacy advocates. While this focus on pharmacy is the strength of the book, it is also its weakness as it does not include the roles of other health care practitioners in public health. Nevertheless, this book serves as a great reference and resource for interested readers as it thoroughly covers the most important aspects of the relationship between pharmacy practice and public health.