When Joseph Abdelnour (PharmD’24 in progress) accepted his recent co-op work term at Avalon Compound Pharmacy (ACP), he never anticipated the new challenges he would face.
With no children’s cold medications available in Ottawa and the inability to order from distributors, pharmacists are advising patients to visit nearby emergency rooms, where they must wait for many hours. The other common advice is to visit compounding pharmacies.
Compounding pharmacies create prescribed medications in-house for patients whereas retail pharmacies can only offer medications on the market. Abdelnour’s co-op was at just such a compounding pharmacy.
“Co-op terms can be overwhelming for some, but this fall had its own specific challenges. On top of the regular workload, ACP experienced an increase in patients due to medication shortages,” Abdelnour says.
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