Selecting The Right Type Of Furniture Shelf For Community Pharmacy

Shelf in community pharmacy

One of the major components of a community pharmacy is the shelf. The shelf is a piece of furniture that is used to organise and arrange drugs and documents. New community pharmacies or old one looking to upgrade always find a dilemma between the different choices available.

Types Of Shelf For Community Pharmacy

This brings us to another topic; types of shelf. There are basically three types of shelf that can be found in a community pharmacy shop. Each has their own advantage and disadvantage. They all have different prices. They are glass, wood and steel. Each has their own desirable property.

Property Of A Good Shelf

The target of choosing a shelf is not just to organise and arrange the drugs and document. There is also the desire to add beauty, easy visibility of the drugs when searching and durability. We must not forget to mention lower prices.

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Glass Shelf

We are not talking about your everyday regular glass use in the house for drinking water. Those are cheap and weak. We are talking about glass shelves made durable by heat treatment. The thicker, the stronger and the higher the price. The thickness will determine the amount of load it can carry. However, the thickness is always high to prevent breakage from minor hitting during use.

It looks beautiful because it allows light to pass through. Another advantage is that it requires low maintenance. If it breaks, it does not shatter into many pieces because of the treatment. Easy to clean even when it is grease and can fit into any interior decor. That includes the wall paint colour. Lastly, it does not create shadows at night when the light is one as light passes through to the down shelf.

The downside is that it makes it difficult to look for drugs. This Is because looking at one row, you will be seeing all the drugs in that row including the next row and even other columns. This can confuse the eyes making it difficult to search for drugs. Some glass shelves are made with an extra mirror. This has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the mirror reflects light at night reducing the quantity of light needed. Unfortunately, that light reflection can hit the eyes and lead to temporary blindness that hinder search for drugs in the shelf. Lastly, it can break and cause bodily harm to anybody around.

Wood Shelf

This Is the oldest type of shelf around. They are made from wood. Modern wooden furniture is made of solid core of pressed cheaper wood or plywood (engineered wood) and then covered with a finish paint or veneer. Veneer is a piece of real wood that is used to cover the core of material that is not wood. This made the whole set up look like real wood with the same feel.

Wood is good. It is durable especially with modern finishing. Real wood is the best in terms of durability. It is cheap and can easily be done by a carpenter around. Best for displaying products.

The downside is that it becomes weaker with age. The nails used to hold it up together begin to loosen. Termites might destroy it when not properly taken care of. Also destroyed by toxic cleaning agents. Create shadow at night over the lower shelf when the lighting source is at the top.

Steel Shelf

Steel is a game changer. Probably because it is new to the system. It came with it's own advantage. But that does not remove the disadvantage. It is the strongest among all the options we have. It is durable. It can be moved from one place to another by cutting and welding back into other shapes to suit the new environment. It is resistant to moisture and toxic cleaning chemicals.

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It is one of the most expensive pieces of furniture today. Difficult to achieve perfect finishing. This poor finishing leaves room for contour. This contour can add friction to drugs when picking them. If not careful bottle drugs can fall off the hands and break. The rough edge can cause bodily injury. The sharp spines at the base can destroy some floor types. The weight is also another disadvantage as it is heavy to lift. Lastly, it also creates shadows when the light is from the top.

We have seen the different types of shelf, their advantages and disadvantages. There is no winner. Everybody has their own desires. Unfortunately, you cannot use more than one type. It will remove the beauty. Wooden shelves are a major player in Nigeria today.

One more thing. The shelf should be long enough to accommodate more drugs in a row. Also, the height of each column should be high enough to accommodate drugs with big size.