Advice provision for women: community pharmacists' attitudes and skills

Abstract

Abstract Objective To assess the frequency of community pharmacists' advice-giving to women and to determine pharmacists' attitudes and perceived knowledge, confidence and embarrassment in providing such advice. Method A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 600 Northern Ireland community pharmacists for self-completion. One reminder was sent. The questionnaire asked pharmacists to rate their knowledge on a list of women's health topics and to rate their confidence in dealing with women's health issues. Pharmacists were asked what actions they took to increase women's comfort in discussing potentially sensitive topics. They were also asked about the availability of women's health services locally. Closed response data were entered into SPSS for analysis while open question responses were collated and analysed separately. Key findings Pharmacy customers were predominantly female and the majority of pharmacists reported providing advice on women's health on a daily basis. Most pharmacists reported being confident and knowledgeable on women's health issues. Pharmacists had strategies to ensure that women felt comfortable discussing personal problems and they were not embarrassed dealing with such problems. Respondents felt more comfortable responding to, rather than initiating, such discussions. Personal views made it difficult for some respondents to provide advice on emergency contraception. Male pharmacists considered themselves to be less confident, less knowledgeable, more embarrassed and to have greater difficulty initiating a conversation on sensitive issues compared with female pharmacists. Conclusion Pharmacists on the whole were confident when dealing with requests for advice. Counselling confidence was related to counselling frequency. Initiation of conversations on women's health issues was difficult for some pharmacists. More active collaboration with the providers of other professional services available to women may enhance pharmacists' overall service provision for women customers.