Pharmacists impacting international public health: A post-graduate pharmacy residency in southern Africa

Pharmacy residency programs enhance participants' competencies in optimizing patients' medication outcomes strategies. They empower pharmacists to improve medication adherence programs in many settings. In an HIV international pharmacy residency program, the resident spends 6 months in Southern Africa and 6 months in the US within the HIV advocacy and policy department. The clinically-trained pharmacist has the opportunity to compare, contrast and enhance both US- and Africa-based pharmacy delivery systems. The resident implements medication adherence programs in different countries in Southern Africa. S/he also provides pharmaceutical care education to health care professionals, community health workers and patients. Since clinical pharmacists are scarce in Southern Africa, the local communities and hospitals widely embrace the program. The advantages of this type of residency programs are not just unidirectional. It provides a unique international public health experience to US pharmacists.

Lessons Learned: These programs not only have the potential to increase medication adherence in resource scarce settings, but also to stress the role of pharmacists in the international public health arena. Furthermore, lessons from these resource-constraint settings can be transferred to the US.

Next Steps: There is a need for international pharmacy programs to capitalize upon the unique skills of clinical pharmacists to improve public health. During this specific residency for example, the skills learned can be applied not only to HIV in Africa but to other disease states in any low-income community.