The change in pharmacists' attitude, confidence and job satisfaction following participation in a novel hypertension support service.

Abstract

To demonstrate how the confidence, attitude and job satisfaction of pharmacists who provide interventions and lifestyle support services to patients with hypertension are altered. This study was a before-and-after study that used data from 50 pharmacists who participated in the Community Pharmacists Assist for Blood Pressure (COMPASS-BP) study, which was an interventional study that was conducted in Japan to evaluate the effects of lifestyle support services provided to hypertension patients. The pharmacists received 4h of training before the study was initiated to learn how to quickly provide patients with guidance about diet and exercise and tobacco and alcohol consumption. During the interventional period, each pharmacist provided concise lifestyle guidance to 1-3 hypertension patients. The pharmacists met with the patients a total of 5 times. The parameters that were assessed were the pharmacists' attitudes towards and confidence in their lifestyle support services, as well as their level of job satisfaction. We verified the scores of each parameter assessed before and after the study, as well as changes in the relationships among the different parameters. Significant increases from baseline to the end of the study were observed for Confidence (P<0.01), Job satisfaction, including 'Knowledge' (P<0.01), 'Patient counselling management' (P=0.04) and 'Sense of personal growth' (P<0.01). Additionally, path analysis results revealed that after the study, the causal relationship between 'Knowledge' and 'Attitude' disappeared, and a new causal relationship appeared between 'Patient counselling and management' and 'Attitude'. Providing lifestyle guidance improved pharmacists' confidence and attitude. Also, 'Attitude' tended to improve as the 'Patient counselling and management' score increased.