Describing the Role and Duties of a Military Pharmacist in Iran Armed Forces Health Care System

Due to the comprehensiveness of educational topics and mastery of various scientific topics, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology on the one hand, and management, business and economics on the other, pharmacists have a significant ability to perform various tasks in the healthcare system. In the meantime, pharmacists who are exposed to military training, as well as how to deal with various emergencies, have many more capabilities than the civil ones. Since it seems that this capability is less used in the health care system of the armed forces of the country, examples of these capabilities have been compiled at different levels of the health care system of the armed forces and have been put into experts’ judgment, which is presented in this article.

First, based on published texts and in consultation with six experts in the field of military pharmacy, 10 general levels in the health system of the Armed Forces were considered to express the activities of military pharmacists, and for each level, 10 general roles, activities or tasks were identified and Compiled. The titles of the questionnaire were prepared for consultation with experts, managers, and experienced people, and after checking the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, it was sent to the target group of 30 people separately. After collection, views, and comments were reviewed and analyzed.

Examination of the obtained opinions showed that out of a total of one hundred titles of role, activity, and task, 15 titles in more than 90%, 25 titles in more than 80%, 30 titles in more than 70%, 28 titles in more than 60%, and the remaining two titles in more than 50% of cases received "strongly agree" comments. Only two of the titles received more than 10 percent (and less than 20 percent) "disagree" opinions. Other comments are "somewhat agreeable". Examining the answers to the open-ended questions, which provided some explanations, also indicated the approval and acceptance of the presented materials.

According to the published texts and the use of experts with experimental and managerial scientific backgrounds in designing and compiling one hundred titles of role, activity, and duty of military pharmacists in ten general levels in the Armed Forces health system and the obtaining of positive results from 30 experts in the field of health and treatment of the armed forces, all these one hundred roles, activities, and tasks were accepted as an example of what pharmacists can take on throughout the healthcare system of the armed forces and can be used as a guide for increasing the effectiveness of pharmacists in the armed forces of the country.