German Community Pharmacists

When one analyses the work of German pharmacists, one finds that only those pharmacists working in hospital pharmacies, the pharmaceutical industry, research, and regulatory affairs have full autonomous control over their area of expertise. Even though German community pharmacists are highly trained and respected healthcare specialists working for the benefit of their patients, they still lack full autonomous control and authority over certain essential areas of their expertise, which results in their professionalisation being incomplete. Community pharmacists thus need to combine two different identities – being healthcare professionals and establishing a commercially successful community pharmacy practice. This book illustrates how those goals can be achieved by using the best international elements to implement new advanced pharmaceutical care practice standards into German community pharmacies, while also applying the theories of the French philosopher Michel Foucault to German community pharmacies for the first time.