The Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria has expressed regret over its lack of a clear-cut brand identity in the country.
It noted that it had become imperative for the body to have a corporate brand identity like the other professionals in the nation’s health sector.
The National Vice Chairman of the association, Dr. Kingsley Amibor, who disclosed this, stressed that other units in the nation’s medical sector had clear-cut identity while theirs lacked such.
He said, “One of the challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector is what I may call the lack of brand identity. For instance, medical doctors are synonymous with medical care, nurses with nursing care. But what do people identify hospital pharmacists with? Most times they refer to us as dispensers or chemists at best.”
“We need to embark on corporate re-branding. By this, I mean that we should adopt pharmaceutical care as our philosophy of practice. In other words, we will offer care as our brand and graduate from the age-old “dispenser status” that we have been identified with over the years.”
Speaking further, Amibor said, “Another area to be focused is an improvement in the welfare of our members, and we intend to give the average hospital and administrative pharmacist a sense of belonging and to carry them along in all we do.”
He listed health education and members’ welfare as some of the areas that should be focused on in order to enhance pharmaceutical practice in the country.
“Another area to be focused on is an improvement in the welfare of our members, and we intend to give the average hospital and administrative pharmacist a sense of belonging and to carry them along in all we do,” he said.
Other areas, according to him, are collaboration with other relevant bodies and promotion of specialisation among members.
“Another area of focus should be to encourage specialisation in core areas of pharmacy among our members. The rest of the world has moved on in this regard and pharmacists cannot afford to lag behind. Gone are the days when you would see a medical doctor or nurse or medical laboratory scientist carry out his entire professional duties all by himself or herself,” Amibor said.
