Abstract
Susan Bowles
(Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Through her work as a clinician, educator, researcher, and scholarly author, Susan Bowles has earned recognition as a leader in geriatric therapeutics. She has expanded the body of knowledge about medication use in older populations, while also working to expand the role of the pharmacist in geriatrics and other types of patient care.
Dr. Bowles is a clinical pharmacy specialist in an interdisciplinary geriatrics team in the Centre for Health Care of the Elderly at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. She is also an associate professor in Dalhousie University's Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine.
Her colleagues on the geriatrics team pay tribute to her extensive knowledge, commitment to patient care, and team building. “In my 18-year career I have not met an individual who has so strongly impacted my thinking or practice about medications and older people,” says Dr. Daniel Carver, geriatrician at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. Nurse practitioner Sandra Duke says Dr. Bowles is a “vigorous and efficacious patient advocate,” who “clearly respects and enhances the idea of true collaborative practice.”
“I believe very strongly that pharmacists have an important contribution to make,” says Dr. Bowles. “In my work, I try to set an example for other pharmacists and to set an expectation among other health professionals that this is the way they can expect pharmacists to perform on the team.”
The need for pharmacist expertise in the care of the elderly is going to further expand, she notes. “The aging of the population is something the health care system views as a potential disaster, but it doesn't have to be that way,” she says. “If pharmacists and other health care professionals focus on preventing chronic diseases and reducing the burden of illness, we can help keep many older persons out of the acute care system for longer.”
Dr. Bowles is also an advocate of the pharmacist's role in vaccination. She developed and piloted a model for delivering annual flu vaccines in the community pharmacy setting, and was recently named vice-chair of the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion. She was also a guest editor of CPJ's supplement “Practical Management of Vaccines.”
Dr. Bowles believes the expansion of interdisciplinary teams is going to require all health professionals to acquire a broader set of skills. Rigid definitions of the roles of pharmacists, nurses, and others are going to disappear, she predicts, and the education system will have to make changes as well. “We have made leaps and bounds in terms of how we are training the next generation of pharmacists, but we need to push it further.”