The pharmacist game
Play the game to discover more about the medicines a pharmacist dispenses to treat different medical conditions.
Overview
Play this fun game and find out what pharmacists can prescribe and dispense to treat different medical conditions and illnesses.
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Important safety note
Before starting this activity, please make sure that your children understand:
- If they find any medicines they should not touch or taste them. They should immediately tell or show an adult.
- They should only take medicines that are given to them by their parent, carer or teacher at school.
- They should never take medicines that a doctor has prescribed for somebody else.
What to do
Step 1
Print out the pharmacist game and game cards. Cut out the 24 prescriptions cards along the dotted lines.
Step 2
Shuffle the cards and place them face down on the prescriptions space. Find a counter for each player and place them on start space.
Step 3
Take it in turns to take a prescription card, read it out and then move along the board the number of spaces indicated by number of green crosses on each card.
Step 4
Place the completed prescription cards on the ‘dispensed’ space. The first player to reach the finish space wins.
How the scoring works
One cross for advice and ‘over the counter’ medicines.
Pharmacists can give advice about coughs, colds, sore throats, ear infections and aches and pains. You don’t need to make an appointment with your doctor if you or a family member has one of these illnesses. A pharmacist can sell you a treatment for these conditions that does not require a prescription.
Two crosses for dispensing medicines that have been prescribed by a doctor.
Pharmacists can dispense medicines and treatments that have been prescribed for you by the doctor. You will have to make an appointment to see the doctor first.
Three crosses for medicines that pharmacists can prescribe.
Most pharmacists can prescribe medicines for some conditions without you needing to make an appointment with a doctor.
Things to talk about
You could talk about times you or members of your family have been ill or had medical conditions.
Could you buy a treatment from the pharmacist to make you better?
Did you need to make an appointment and visit the doctor?
Could the pharmacist have prescribed a treatment for your medical condition?
Other things to try
Making medicine
Make up some containers of different coloured water using food colouring or a small amount of poster paint. You could use different shapes and sizes of containers, jugs, cups, spoons and bottles to make different medicines. You could try this outside on a warm day or in the bath.
You could ask:
- Who is your medicine for? What is the matter with them?
- Which colour liquids are you using?
- What happens when you mix them together?
- What happens if you add more blue/green/red…?
- Which colour did you use the most/least of?
- What do you think the red liquid does to help people get better?
- How do you think the blue liquid helps your body?
- Can you make me a mixture to stop my headache?
- Can you make me a mixture to cure my sore throat?
- How many of these (smaller) containers does it take to fill that (larger) container?
- How many of these (smaller) bottles can you fill with that (larger) container of medicine mixture you have made?
What you will need
- Pharmacist game printout
- Scissors
- Counters or game pieces
Duration
10 minutes or so.
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about supervision: the activity involves small parts, so there’s a choke hazard.
Careers link- pharmacist
Pharmacists dispense medicines. This means they prepare and give medicines to people who have a prescription (or their adult if they are a child). Pharmacists can work in a pharmacy, hospital or GP practice. They can also give advice about prescriptions, how to use and store medicines, and the dangers of medicines. Some pharmacists also make and test new medicines.
Pharmacists are:
Creative when they make new medicines and when they prepare and make special medicines for patients.
Curious about what is wrong with their patients when they are unwell and about which medicines will be best to make them better.
Observant they need to read prescriptions carefully and make sure they give the correct amount of each medicine to their patients.
Would you like to be a pharmacist?
