The paper contributes to the sociology of professions, specifically the changing status of pharmacists from being an ‘incomplete profession’ to having a higher degree of clinical autonomy over patient care.

Drawing insights from linguistics and, specifically, ‘grammar of legitimation’, our paper explains how a nationally funded learning programme provides the discursive strategies for pharmacists to legitimise their identity work as clinicians.

Pharmacists are expected to further expand their clinical roles to include more patient interactions and approach them in a similar way to other healthcare professionals, playing a key role in preventing illness and expanding their clinical work in community pharmacies.