March is Pharmacist Awareness Month and the perfect time to educate yourself about the variety of services offered by pharmacists. When was the last time you went to your local pharmacy for something other than to fill a prescription? Below I am sharing some of the other convenient and helpful services pharmacists can provide to you and your family.

  • Administer travel vaccines and other vaccines like the shingles and flu vaccines:  Travelling abroad anytime soon? Your pharmacist can review your travel plans and recommend preventative measures including immunizations before your trip. You can also speak to your pharmacist about the shingles or flu vaccine. In most provinces, pharmacists are able to administer the vaccines right in the pharmacy.
  • Diabetes Management: Your pharmacist can help you learn more about living well with diabetes. If you or somebody you love suffers from diabetes, you can schedule a time to speak to your pharmacist and they can help you make sense of your medications, select a blood glucose monitor, monitor your blood glucose by providing practical tips and instructions and more. They can even help you plan healthy meals, get physically active and give you information on other diabetes-related topics.
  • Heart Health: Monitoring your blood pressure is important and easy to do with the many easy-to-use, in-store blood pressure machines available. After you are done checking your blood pressure, you can speak with your pharmacist to help you review your blood pressure measurement results. They can also help when understanding blood pressure education and food/other medicine interactions.
  • Renew Your Prescription: Did you know that in some provinces pharmacists can review your medication and help you renew your prescription if you are in a pinch? Your pharmacist may be able to provide a prescription renewal to ensure you don’t miss a dose and then inform your regular doctor of any prescriptions that they renew for you.  Such a fantastic service! It sure doesn’t replace regular checkups with your doctor, but it is a convenient option to use if you have to.
  • Nutritional Advice:  You can ask your pharmacist for nutritional information, they can help you make healthy food choices and educate you on eating well. If you are looing for nutritional advice speaking to a Registered Dietitian is also a very good idea.

Next time you visit your local pharmacy remember the convenient extra services pharmacist can provide.

THE GIVEAWAY

Win it: One lucky Canadian reader will win a $500 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card. It’s easy! To enter to WIN just share a recent great experience you had with a pharmacist at your local Shoppers Drug Mart or Real Canadian Superstore via the “Love Your Pharmacist Contest” LINK,  then come back here and leave the link to your entry below (just copy and paste the link on your address bar at the end of your survey). When entering your story about at their page submit as much information as possible, including:

  • Pharmacy location (major intersection and city is sufficient)
  • The pharmacist’s name, if possible
  • Approximate date of events described
  • The situation, pharmacist’s action, and the outcome
  • 50-200 words
  • Name of blogger who sent them to the SurveyMonkey (OneSmileyMonkey in this case)

Note that five other bloggers will be running a giveaway for a gift card in each of their blogs, but you can only win once!  For more information check the official Contest Rules. Good Luck!

 

Disclosure: This is a partnered post with Shoppers Drug Mart. Compensation has been received for this post. However, all opinions and views on this post are 100% my own.