National “Talk about Prescriptions Month” was founded by the National Council on Patient Information and Education in 1985 as a way of advocating for individuals to find a greater sense of autonomy in their healthcare, and designated for October.
To raise awareness, BrightStar Care of Racine would like to introduce Sunday Muniz, who owns and operates Nutritional Designs and Pharmacy with her husband Jody.
Sunday found her love of healthcare as a young child by viewing her mother give cares as a Nurse and knew that she would someday work in some part of healthcare. This blossomed into an opportunity to be accepted at medical school. While she was there, she saw what the career of pharmaceuticals could offer. She saw how much the science intertwined with compassionate care of patients and decided to switch career paths. She finished her degree in Pharmaceuticals in 1989 and has been happily working in some form of the field ever since. After working corporately based, she and her husband Jody decided it was time for a switch.
It all began after the birth of her twins, she would say. Sunday knew her body and knew that with her symptoms of depression, a traditional line of medicine would be prescribed. She felt that she would find greater benefits with another route. The pharmacist began to research what this meant and one of her avenues of research led her to Dr. Andrew Weil, an MD who focuses on alternatives to health and wellness with a focus on integrative medicine. This was the pivotal point in her career that led to her revelational moment.
“I always felt a disconnect in school that my outlook didn’t align with what was taught to me. Once I found the life of wellness, it was the glue that made my education and personal outlook of compassionate and empathetic care make sense. When you look at medications, you look at benefit and risk. Quality of life and quantity of life should match. We have seen a great deal of quantity of life in the united states with a severe discord to the quality of that life.”
This led to the couple beginning a mission of simplifying health and wellness, while also creating a perfect balance between the nurturing tone of a family owned business to the professionalism of a full-scale pharmacy and wellness store.
The store that Sunday and Jody operate is called Nutritional Designs and Pharmacy, and It’s located at 5220 Washington Ave. Suite 101 in Racine, WI.
BrightStar Care of Racine got to chat with Sunday and ask few questions about her care methods.
What is the most common mistake you see in patients and their medications?
- Generally, I see a concern in the consistency in taking medication. This is for a multitude of reasons however a large one is side effects. Side effects can greatly increase the ill feelings towards a medication and how it relates to their care. I find that to dissuade from this, Education is key. It is important to have an individual with you who you trust and can relate to you on these topics.
How can a patient best advocate for themselves?
- Ask the hard questions. This takes having a great relationship with your provider and pharmacist so that you feel comfortable asking these questions. She always tells her staff there are going to be people who will call multiple times because these questions can become so daunting, and its their job to break it down for them. There is no such thing as bothering someone, this is their job no matter the time it takes to make their clients feel comfortable in their healthcare.
The people she finds who get the best results are the people who are going to jot down notes. She feels they should have a notebook with them and believes very heavily in the education piece of healthcare. She loves to know that when a patient leaves her store, they are leaving not only understanding their medication and how to take it, but why they are taking it. Empowering is a key part of her prescription.
How can a patient safely store their medication?
- The biggest problems with storage boil down to elements, specifically moisture and heat. Bathrooms are a very difficult place to store medications. Patients may have a small bathroom that fills up with
moisture very quickly and the medication may become harmed by this. The same is to be said of heat, with some patients keeping their medications in the kitchen next to the coffee maker or in the cabinet above the stove. She and her husband have individual baskets. The baskets were purchased from a store for a small price yet are large enough to house the medications and supplements they take to safely store them in individual baskets. She promotes this idea to keep them all together and in one place. Pill packs were her next recommendation, even keeping a weekly one herself to avoid from reopening the medication bottles excessively.
To raise awareness, BrightStar Care of Racine would like to introduce Sunday Muniz, who owns and operates Nutritional Designs and Pharmacy with her husband Jody.
Sunday found her love of healthcare as a young child by viewing her mother give cares as a Nurse and knew that she would someday work in some part of healthcare. This blossomed into an opportunity to be accepted at medical school. While she was there, she saw what the career of pharmaceuticals could offer. She saw how much the science intertwined with compassionate care of patients and decided to switch career paths. She finished her degree in Pharmaceuticals in 1989 and has been happily working in some form of the field ever since. After working corporately based, she and her husband Jody decided it was time for a switch.
It all began after the birth of her twins, she would say. Sunday knew her body and knew that with her symptoms of depression, a traditional line of medicine would be prescribed. She felt that she would find greater benefits with another route. The pharmacist began to research what this meant and one of her avenues of research led her to Dr. Andrew Weil, an MD who focuses on alternatives to health and wellness with a focus on integrative medicine. This was the pivotal point in her career that led to her revelational moment.
“I always felt a disconnect in school that my outlook didn’t align with what was taught to me. Once I found the life of wellness, it was the glue that made my education and personal outlook of compassionate and empathetic care make sense. When you look at medications, you look at benefit and risk. Quality of life and quantity of life should match. We have seen a great deal of quantity of life in the united states with a severe discord to the quality of that life.”
This led to the couple beginning a mission of simplifying health and wellness, while also creating a perfect balance between the nurturing tone of a family owned business to the professionalism of a full-scale pharmacy and wellness store.
The store that Sunday and Jody operate is called Nutritional Designs and Pharmacy, and It’s located at 5220 Washington Ave. Suite 101 in Racine, WI.
BrightStar Care of Racine got to chat with Sunday and ask few questions about her care methods.
What is the most common mistake you see in patients and their medications?
- Generally, I see a concern in the consistency in taking medication. This is for a multitude of reasons however a large one is side effects. Side effects can greatly increase the ill feelings towards a medication and how it relates to their care. I find that to dissuade from this, Education is key. It is important to have an individual with you who you trust and can relate to you on these topics.
How can a patient best advocate for themselves?
- Ask the hard questions. This takes having a great relationship with your provider and pharmacist so that you feel comfortable asking these questions. She always tells her staff there are going to be people who will call multiple times because these questions can become so daunting, and its their job to break it down for them. There is no such thing as bothering someone, this is their job no matter the time it takes to make their clients feel comfortable in their healthcare.
The people she finds who get the best results are the people who are going to jot down notes. She feels they should have a notebook with them and believes very heavily in the education piece of healthcare. She loves to know that when a patient leaves her store, they are leaving not only understanding their medication and how to take it, but why they are taking it. Empowering is a key part of her prescription.
How can a patient safely store their medication?
- The biggest problems with storage boil down to elements, specifically moisture and heat. Bathrooms are a very difficult place to store medications. Patients may have a small bathroom that fills up with
moisture very quickly and the medication may become harmed by this. The same is to be said of heat, with some patients keeping their medications in the kitchen next to the coffee maker or in the cabinet above the stove. She and her husband have individual baskets. The baskets were purchased from a store for a small price yet are large enough to house the medications and supplements they take to safely store them in individual baskets. She promotes this idea to keep them all together and in one place. Pill packs were her next recommendation, even keeping a weekly one herself to avoid from reopening the medication bottles excessively.