Introduction
Occupational therapy and pharmacy are covered under the National Health Centre to deliver universal healthcare to communities around the United Kingdom and continue to provide unveiled access. The two practices are governed by different frameworks that set an agreed definition for clinical practices within the health care professionals. The critical review aims at evaluating if these two practices are befitting to the England health practice. The paper aims to evaluate the role boundaries, autonomy, legislations, policies, education, decision making, and scope of practice.
Literature Review on the ACP Framework
Occupational therapy is defined as the therapeutic use of everyday life activities to enable participation in routines, habits, and roles within the environmental setting such as community, home, workplace, and school (Ohura et al., 2021). The practitioners tend to use their knowledge of the transactional relationship of the patient by engaging them on a valuable occupation to develop an action-based intervention plan that will enable growth and change of the patient (Godoy-Vieira et al., 2018). It looks at factors such as beliefs, body functionality, body structures, spirituality, and skills such as social interactions, processes, and motor necessary for participation.
This is different from a pharmacy, which is the science and art of dispending and preparing the drug (Rendell, Barnett and Wright, 2021). The practice mainly involves having knowledge of drugs, their uses, and the scope of how they work in the body. It mainly involves providing the patient with drug information and counselling, ensuring efficacy and safety of the medication, patient care, and clinical services.
Scope of the ACP
The two practices have different scopes within the health. A pharmacist is involved in disease management, extemporizing compounding health psychology, drug and abuse prevention, drug-food interactions, patient care, drug-drug interactions, pharmacological incompatibilities, and pharmaceutical therapy (Aly et al., 2018). Also, clinical intervention is under pharmacist jurisdiction. They have the authority to refuse drug dispensing in various circumstances, such as adjusting drug dosage to the patient per recommendation, managing parenteral nutrition, adding and recommending changes to the patient’s pharmacotherapy (Savickas et al., 2021).
Under occupational therapy, the practitioner’s scope of work focuses on the result participation of the patient (Graham, 2020). Hence, they enable engagement through environmental modifications and adaptations. It provides patients with the wellness of the patents non-disability and disability needs rehabilitation and promotes the body’s wellness and health (Hitch and Pepin, 2021). The services within occupational therapy include disability, impairment, disease disorder, injury, activity limitation, restriction in participation, and cases where one is at risk of developing an illness.
Drivers
The pharmacy practice is driven by the RPS advanced pharmacy framework that guides the practitioners in self-assess within their six areas in expert professional practice, management, leadership, education and training, research and evaluation, and collaborative workplaces (Lam, 2018). These areas cover most of the pharmaceutical areas. For instance, the expert professional practice guides the practitioners on skills and knowledge, professional autonomy, reasoning and judgment, and delivering professional expertise. The framework considers any role and experience and how the practitioners will need to support their work, developing their practice (Jones and Meade, 2021). For instance, the framework enables them to be equipped with educational training and professional development to ensure their skills and knowledge are practical within their everyday activities (Anderson, Claire and Sharma., 2020). The framework also allows them to undertake complex roles that have greater responsibilities for deliverables and outcomes (Borthwick, 2019). It prepares them to deliver services from any situation while also being accountable.
On the other hand, the occupation therapy framework guides the therapist on using their knowledge and actions relevant to occupation and occupational therapy of the identified areas of practice and the patient needs (Milton, Dunford and Newby, 2019). The practitioner must create a positive relationship with the patients as the framework identifies it is important to understand the patents health, productivity, and abilities. The framework is divided into two sections the domain and process. The process describes the actions undertaken to provide care to the patient. Domain outlines the knowledge and expertise of the practitioner (Perryman-Fox and Cox, 2020). Both aim in providing health care to the client as they provide simultaneous attention to the patient’s body functionality and structures, context, routines, habits, and roles by engaging with skills and knowledge.
Client factors are also a main driver in the occupational therapy framework. These are the characteristics, capabilities, and beliefs of the patient. They are affected by life experiences, disease, illness, and disability which are important in occupational therapy (Kumar et al., 2021). For instance, the practitioner needs to have context on the client’s body functionality ad structures such as mentality functions and body system functionality before caring to understand the performance levels. Other drivers in the framework are performance patterns, environment context, performance skills, and cultural context (Eva and Morgan, 2018). To administer the occupational therapy process, the practitioner should analyze the client’s occupational performance, collaborate the collected information with the client, create an intervention plan, and select outcome measures.
Level of Education and Entry Requirements
The education levels of occupational therapy and pharmacy differ. For a pharmacy practitioner, one must have completed a four-year course under the Royal pharmaceutical society of Great Britain and then have an internship of one year termed as preregistration work under supervision (Choudhary and Newham, 2020). The program is fully recognized under European regulation. The entry requirements are the A-level final examination and second-class honours to pursue the course.
However, to practice occupational therapy in the UK, one needs to have a degree in occupational therapy that takes three years (Forsyth and Rushworth, 2021). Also, one must be registered under Health and Care Professions Council to practice. The entry levels of the undergraduate course are normally three A levels, five GCSEs, equivalent qualifications of a science-based course, or relevant national vocational qualifications.
Policies
Various policies govern the two different professional groups, pharmacy and occupational therapy. Pharmacy is overseen by the General Pharmaceutical Council, which regulates the pharmacist technician by setting standards, holding registers, investigating complaints, and providing quality assurances (Scahill, Nagaria and Curley, 2018). The main responsibilities and powers of the General Pharmaceutical Council are governed under the pharmacy order 2010 (Lewis and Mortimore, 2018). The order allows the council to make changes and rules to set standards and requirements. For instance, the council set standards under the retail pharmacy business. It has also outlined offences under pharmacy businesses and cases where investigation of licensing and regulation should be conducted.
In occupational therapy, the health and care professional council governs the profession. It ensures that the practitioners meet health, behaviour, professional skills, and training standards (Hindi, Jacobs and Schafheutle, 2019). The practices are governed by several acts such as the National Health Service Act of 1948, which states are the duty of the minister of health to ensure and promote that health services improve the mental and physical health of the people and the treatment and prevention of illness which ensures that the occupational therapist ensures the best interest to protect their clients.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Occupational therapy and pharmacy practices differ in it will involve evaluating the role boundaries, autonomy, legislations, policies, education, decision making, and scope of practice. From the literature review, occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of everyday life activities to enable participation in routines, habits, and roles within the environmental setting such as community, home, workplace, and school. In comparison, pharmacy is defined as which is the science and art of dispending and preparing the drug, having knowledge of drugs, their uses, and the scope of how they work in the body. Its scope involves providing the patient with drug information and counselling, ensuring efficacy and safety of the medication, patient care, and clinical services. As seen, pharmacy requires one to have completed a four-year course under the Royal pharmaceutical society of Great Britain and then have an internship of one year termed as preregistration work under supervision. In contrast, an occupational therapist must be registered under Health and Care Professions Council to practice. The entry levels of the undergraduate course. Also, there are governed with to different councils the occupational therapist is under health and cares professional council while pharmacy is under the General Pharmaceutical Council. Lastly, they have different roles in clinical practices. The pharmacist is involved in disease management, extemporizing compounding health psychology, drug and abuse prevention, drug-food interactions, patient care, drug-drug interactions, pharmacological incompatibilities, and pharmaceutical therapy. However, occupational therapy involves caring for the patient’s body functionality and structures, context, routines, habits, and roles by engaging with skills and knowledge.
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