Support Community Pharmacists Research Articles

Determining a future policy focus to support antimicrobial stewardship in community pharmacy: A modified Delphi study

BackgroundOver the past decade, the pharmacy sector's policy, academic and professional spheres have increasingly drawn attention to the opportunities to better leverage the untapped potential of the community pharmacy sector in contributing to global efforts to reduce antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While efforts are in train, progress is slow. ObjectiveTo draw insights from global experts in the field to identify a broad range of potential future policy directions to support community pharmacists' involvement in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). MethodsA modified Delphi technique, comprising two survey rounds to build consensus amongst global community pharmacy sector stakeholders and opinion leaders. In Round 1, participants rated their level of agreement with 28 statements across the three domains of policy design, implementation design, and monitoring and evaluation. Participants were also invited to contribute feedback in Round 1, which was reflected as new statements (n = 10) in Round 2. In Round 2, participants were asked to re-assess Round 1 statements in view of the group consensus and to rate the new statements. Results289 participants were invited to participate. 48/289 (17% response rate) completed Round 1, and 25/42 (60% response rate) completed Round 2. Consensus (defined as >70% agreement) was achieved for 79% (n = 30) of the statements across the three domains. ConclusionPharmacy sector experts agreed that acknowledging community pharmacists in AMS national action plans is an important component, signalling a recognition of the sector's contribution to whole-of-nation AMS efforts. Implementation components that achieved consensus reflect the profession's evolution to a professional service driven model, particularly in complementary AMS initiatives including infection prevention and control measures. Context-specific adjustments to support implementing these AMS measures will be required, in addition to striking the appropriate balance to support the pace of increased community pharmacists'involvement in AMS with building whole-of-profession buy-in.

Public’s Preferences for Community Pharmacy Attributes and Their Perceptions Towards Pharmacist-led Minor Ailment Services in Malaysia

Introduction: The prospect of public accessing community pharmacies for minor ailment advice or treatment highly depends on the pharmacy attributes and their staff. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which community pharmacies are used as a source of minor illness management and the public’s relative preferences for pharmacy features. Methods: A cross-sectional survey among the public in Malaysia was carried out between August and December 2020. The validated self-administered questionnaires were distributed at several pharmacies and shared via email, Whatsapp group, and Facebook. Results: A total of 141 from 153 public respondents completed the survey. From the descriptive and inferential analysis, it was found that about a third of the public goes to a pharmacy for advice or treatment for minor illnesses. The vast majority of respondents had positive perceptions that community pharmacists are knowledgeable and qualified to offer advice or treatment for minor diseases. A significant positive relationship was observed between pharmacy characteristics’ scores and pharmacy staff and pharmacy services’ scores (p<0.001). The increase in pharmacy staff score significantly increased the pharmacy services’ score (p<0.001). Conclusion: The implications of the public acknowledging specific attributes were crucial in further supporting community pharmacists’ services, especially in the private practice setting.

Considerations of Australian community pharmacists in the provision and implementation of cognitive pharmacy services: a qualitative study

BackgroundAustralian federally-funded cognitive pharmacy services (CPS) (e.g. medication management and reconciliation services) have not been translated into practice consistently. These health services are purportedly accessible across all Australian community pharmacies, yet are not delivered as often as pharmacists would like. There are international indicators that pharmacists lack the complete behavioural control required to prioritise CPS, despite their desire to deliver them. This requires local investigation.ObjectiveTo explore Australian pharmacists’ perspectives [1] as CPS providers on the micro level, and [2] on associated meso and macro level CPS implementation issues.MethodsRegistered Australian community pharmacists were recruited via professional organisations and snowball sampling. Data were collected via an online demographic survey and semi-structured interviews until data saturation was reached. Interview transcripts were de-identified then verified by participants. Content analysis was performed to identify provider perspectives on the micro level. Framework analysis using RE-AIM was used to explore meso and macro implementation issues.ResultsTwenty-three participants across Australia gave perspectives on CPS provision. At the micro level, pharmacists did not agree on a single definition of CPS. However, they reported complexity in interactional work and patient considerations, and individual pharmacist factors that affected them when deciding whether to provide CPS. There was an overall deficiency in pharmacy workplace resources reported to be available for implementation and innovation. Use of an implementation evaluation framework suggested CPS implementation is lacking sufficient structural support, whilst reach into target population, service consistency and maintenance for CPS were not specifically considered by pharmacists.ConclusionsThis analysis of pharmacist CPS perspectives suggests slow uptake may be due to a lack of evidence-based, focused, multi-level implementation strategies that take ongoing pharmacist role transition into account. Sustained change may require external change management and implementation support, engagement of frontline clinicians in research, and the development of appropriate pharmacist practice models to support community pharmacists in their CPS roles.Trial registrationThis study was not a clinical intervention trial. It was approved by the University of Technology Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (UTS HREC 19–3417) on the 26th of April 2019.

Evidence-based self-medication: development and evaluation of a professional newsletter concept for community pharmacies

Background Providing evidence-based care is recognized as a key competence for all healthcare professionals. In order to support community pharmacists in evidence-based self-medication counseling, the umbrella organization of German pharmacists initiated the development of a nationwide concept. The key element of the concept was a professional newsletter that should help pharmacists incorporate research findings into their daily counseling practice. Objective To develop, implement and evaluate the professional newsletter concept. Setting German community pharmacies. Method Clinical pharmacists from a German university compiled and synthesized clinical trial data in a professional newsletter that would supply community pharmacists with evidence-based information on common over-the-counter medicines as well as instructions for searching and appraising scientific literature. The electronic newsletter was offered to interested community pharmacists free of charge, once or twice a month, after they signed up for a subscription. About one year after the publication of the first newsletter issue, the subscribers were invited to take part in an anonymous cross-sectional online survey. In all, 21 newsletter issues were published through the end of the survey period. Main outcome measure Perceived value of the professional newsletter with 10 predefined objectives. Results A total of 1975 persons subscribed to the professional newsletter. Of those, 150 persons working in community pharmacies completed the survey. Most of them perceived the synthesized information as ‘useful’ (81–95%). They attributed positive changes in knowledge (89%), skills (87–91%), awareness (85%), and motivation (67–77%) to the newsletter. However, almost half of them (43%) found it difficult to incorporate reading the newsletter in their everyday working life. Free-text feedback suggested that further modifications should be considered to facilitate a better integration of the newsletter into everyday pharmacy practice. Conclusion A nationwide provided professional newsletter can play a vital part in supporting pharmacists in evidence-based self-medication counseling. However, the practicability of such a newsletter needs to be further improved and the newsletter should be accompanied by additional measures.

Learning from community pharmacists' initial experiences of a workplace-based training program

IntroductionTo prepare community pharmacists for the provision of clinical and patient-focused services, a novel postgraduate course for community pharmacists in the United Kingdom was developed. The program incorporated personal development planning against a personal development framework, workplace mentoring, employment of work-based assessment tools, activities that encouraged increased inter-professional working, reflection, and opportunities for peer support. Objectives were to identify course components that support development, describe the effect on practice, and explore the perceived advantages and disadvantages of this model of postgraduate education. MethodsInterviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 15 community pharmacists after they had completed approximately one year of the three-year course. A topic guide covering approaches to learning, rationale for course selection, course experiences to date, and impact on practice was used. Interview recordings were thematically analyzed. ResultsTwo themes were identified. ‘Support for learning’ describes the components of the course that provided support for learning, including opportunities to learn with and from others, workplace mentoring, and facilitated access to general practitioners. ‘Outcomes of learning’ encompasses how the course was a way of effecting change within existing roles and the increase in confidence and motivation to change practice. ConclusionsThe model has merit in supporting community pharmacists to develop the confidence and competence required for extended clinical and patient-focused roles. While this model of learning seems to provide educational value, further research is required to determine whether the additional resources required to provide workplace mentoring, use work-based assessment tools, and encourage inter-professional working are justified.

Evaluation of Bexar County community pharmacist attitudes toward harm reduction.

IntroductionHarm reduction is a term for strategies that minimize the negative outcomes of drug use. Given the progressing opioid epidemic, identifying barriers to harm reduction dispensing in community pharmacies is essential.MethodsThis online, survey-based study assessed community pharmacist attitudes toward harm reduction and perceived dispense rates of both naloxone and needles/syringes to patients without verifiable injectable prescriptions. The online survey was distributed to members of the Bexar County Pharmacist Association and university alumni. The survey collected demographics, perceived dispense rates of naloxone, needles and syringes, availability of pharmacy protocols for dispensing these products, and Likert-scaled attitudinal questions. Responses were collected for 6 weeks.ResultsThirty-two survey responses were analyzed. Participants were generally white (n = 14) or Hispanic/Latino (n = 14), had a median age of 37 years (interquartile range, 32-49 years), and had a median graduation year of 2011 (interquartile range, 1988-2016). Most pharmacists agreed or strongly agreed they should be involved in harm reduction (n = 26) and that pharmacies are an appropriate place to access these resources (n = 26). However, most reported never or rarely dispensing both naloxone (n = 19) and needles and syringes (n = 22). Naloxone or needle and syringe protocol use was reported by 66% (n = 21) and 47% (n = 15) of pharmacists, respectively. Pharmacy protocols significantly enhanced the likelihood of naloxone dispensing (P = .007) but not needle and syringe dispensing (P = .24).ConclusionCommunity pharmacists exhibited positive attitudes toward harm reduction but reported low rates of dispensing both naloxone and needles and syringes. Pharmacy protocols could be enhanced to better support community pharmacists in this area.

Perceived Roles of Independent Community Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians in Patient Referrals to Community Resources: A Study from the Medication Safety Research Network of Indiana (Rx-SafeNet).

Referrals to community resources represent one element of the Chronic Care Model, however, little is known about the perceived role of community pharmacy staff in referring patients to community resources. The objective of this study was to describe community pharmacists', community pharmacy technicians', and patients' perceptions of pharmacist referrals to community resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and patients from community pharmacies that are members of the Medication Safety Research Network of Indiana (Rx-SafeNet). Qualitative analysis was conducted to identify emergent themes. A total of 37 participants, including six community pharmacists, one pharmacy student completing an advanced pharmacy practice experience, 15 community pharmacy technicians, and 15 patients across four independently-owned community pharmacies were interviewed. Themes included: 1) Need to build on a foundation of strong patient-community pharmacist relationships to clearly define the pharmacist's role in referrals, 2) Need to improve familiarity with community resources, 3) Need to clearly delineate and support the role for pharmacy technicians in making referrals, and 4) Need to follow-up on referrals. To enhance community pharmacy staff provision of referrals to community resources, interventions are needed to improve patient and pharmacist familiarity with available resources, patients' perception of the pharmacist's role outside of prescription fulfillment, and follow-up on referrals. Moreover, pharmacy technician education and training could be expanded to optimize their role in supporting community pharmacists in making referrals.

Women's Beliefs About Medicines and Adherence to Pharmacotherapy in Pregnancy: Opportunities for Community Pharmacists.

During pregnancy, women might weigh the benefits of treatment against potential risks to the unborn child. However, non-adherence to necessary treatment can adversely affect both mother and child. To optimize pregnant women's beliefs and medication adherence, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to play an important role in primary care. This narrative review aimed to summarize the evidence on 1) pregnant women's beliefs, 2) medication adherence in pregnancy and 3) community pharmacists' counselling during pregnancy. Three search strategies were used in Medline and Embase to find original studies evaluating women's beliefs, medication adherence and community pharmacists' counselling during pregnancy. All original descriptive and analytic epidemiological studies performed in Europe, North America and Australia, written in English and published from 2000 onwards were included. We included 14 studies reporting on women's beliefs, 11 studies on medication adherence and 9 on community pharmacists' counselling during pregnancy. Women are more reluctant to use medicines during pregnancy and tend to overestimate the teratogenic risk of medicines. The risk perception varies with the type of medicine, level of health literacy, education level and occupation. Furthermore, low medication adherence during pregnancy is common. Finally, limited evidence showed that the current community pharmacists' counselling is insufficient. Barriers hindering pharmacists are insufficient knowledge and limited access to reliable information. Concerns about medication use and non-adherence are widespread among pregnant women. Community pharmacists' counselling during pregnancy is insufficient. Further education, training and research are required to support community pharmacists in fulfilling all the opportunities they have when counselling pregnant women.

Initiatives to Improve Safety of Oral Anticancer Agents Delivered by Community Pharmacists

With the recent growth in oral anticancer agents (OAA), pharmacists working in the community have recognised the urgent need to develop safe and effective systems to administer and manage these drugs. For community pharmacists, education regarding OAA can be challenging, with a number of international surveys showing that many believe they have received inadequate education regarding OAA and feel uncomfortable educating their patients about these drugs. Patients prescribed OAA have also reported feeling unsupported, and this lack of support could lead to both under and overadherence to OAA, with an impact on efficacy and adverse events. Poor adherence can result in disease progression, treatment complications, reduced functional ability, and premature death. The current review, written by international authors from Europe, North America, and East Asia, set out to identify worldwide initiatives to support community pharmacists working with patients taking OAA. The authors identified one project, the Oral Anticancer Therapy – Safe and Effective initiative, that was developed in Germany in 2011 to aid community pharmacists in their interactions with patients prescribed OAA. The initiative, which has been rolled out across Germany, includes the creation of training programme content that can be delivered at regional meetings and monographs, which can be downloaded to educate both community pharmacists and their patients about individual OAA. As part of the Empowering Patients to Improve Health Care for Oral Chemotherapy (EPIC) programme, the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) has extended the German initiative to Slovenia and Estonia, with plans to launch the scheme in additional European countries in the autumn of 2018. Ultimately, it is hoped that better support of cancer patients in the community will improve adherence to OAA.

Challenges in the management of community pharmacies in Malaysia.

Background:The provision of professional pharmacy services by community pharmacists continues to be limited, particularly in low and middle income countries. It was postulated that multiple management challenges faced by community pharmacists contribute to this situation.Objective:The primary aim of the research was to determine the challenges faced in the management of community pharmacies in Sarawak (the largest state in Malaysia), and practical strategies to cope and overcome the challenges.Methods:Semi-structured interviews were carried out with community pharmacists practising in Sarawak. Purposive and snowball sampling were employed to ensure a diverse group of informants. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, with the resultant data analysed using thematic analysis. Data collection, coding, interpretation were carried out iteratively until theoretical saturation.Results:Twenty respondents from different demographic characteristics were recruited. Six major themes were identified. Management challenges faced by community pharmacists traverse five major domains: market competition, legislative issues, customers’ knowledge and expectations, macroeconomic impacts and operational challenges. Most of these challenges require government intervention to be resolved. In the meantime, improving customer service and expanding the range of professional services were seen as the most viable strategies to cope with existing challenges. The main concern is that current legislative and economic landscape may hinder these strategies. Enactment of dispensing separation and more protective measures against market competition were suggested to alleviate the challenges faced.Conclusion:Numerous management challenges faced by community pharmacists that distract them from delivering professional pharmacy services have been highlighted. Urgent affirmative actions by the government are warranted in supporting community pharmacists to realise and maximise their potentials.

Developing a framework of care for opioid medication misuse in community pharmacy.

Prescription opioid misuse is a major public health concern in the US. Few resources exist to support community pharmacists engaging patients who misuse or are at risk for misuse. This report describes the results of the execution of the ADAPT-ITT model (a model for modifying evidence-based behavioral interventions to new populations and service settings) to guide the development of a behavioral health framework for opioid medication misuse in the community pharmacy setting. Pharmacy, addiction, intervention, and treatment experts were convened to attend a one-day meeting to review the empirical knowledgebase and discuss adapting the screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) protocol for addressing opioid medication misuse in community pharmacy. Qualitative data gathered from the meeting were analyzed by 2 independent coders in a 2-cycle process using objective coding schemes. Percentage of agreement and Cohen's Kappa were calculated to assess coder agreement. First-cycle coding identified 4 distinct themes, with coder percentage of agreement ranging from 93.5 to 99.6% and with Kappa values between 0.81 and 0.93. Second-cycle coding identified 10 sub-themes, with coder percentage of agreement ranging from 83 to 99.8% and with Kappa values between 0.58 and 0.93. Identified themes and sub-themes encompassed patient identification, intervention, prevention, and referral to treatment. Focus of screening efforts in the emerging model should capitalize on pharmacists' knowledge of medication management. Screening likewise should be multidimensional in order to facilitate patient-centered interventions that activate additional disciplines able to interface with patients at risk or involved in medication misuse.

Patients using antifungals following laryngectomy: a qualitative study of community pharmacists in the North of England

To explore community pharmacists' understanding and opinions in relation to the prevention of fungal colonisation of voice prostheses amongst laryngectomy patients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on a purposive sample of 12 community pharmacists from the North of England. Interviews were undertaken until data saturation was reached and responses were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a thematic approach. Six themes emerged from the data analysis. These were: terminology confusion about laryngectomy, stoma and voice prostheses; smoking as a risk factor for the development of laryngeal cancer; using nystatin to prevent biofilm formation; counselling information related to nystatin; prescription intervention and additional education in relation to laryngectomy. The theme of counselling information related to nystatin use and additional education was a key finding: our data show that when dispensing nystatin to patients with a voice prosthesis, community pharmacists would either give no advice related to medication use or would give incorrect advice that may lead to premature prosthesis failure amongst this patient group. This study highlights that community pharmacists lack understanding in relation to laryngectomy and are unaware of the off-label doses and administration methods of the drugs (specifically nystatin) used to prevent fungal colonisation on voice prostheses. Additional information sources in the form of an educational leaflet, possibly obtained through the local department of speech and language therapy, would be perceived as a valuable resource to support community pharmacists who are required to manage these patients in the community.

Developing a Liaison Role for Pharmacists in a Family Medicine Clinic

Objective: To develop a pharmacist liaison service in a family medicine teaching clinic in order to optimize and facilitate community pharmacists' interventions. Target groups: Community pharmacists involved in the care of patients registered at the family medicine clinic (FMC) of Cité de la Santé de Laval and clinical pharmacists working at this clinic. Activities: The FMC is a medical teaching clinic located in a general care hospital. The FMC operates as a multidisciplinary group of GPs, nurses and pharmacists providing care to enlisted patients. Due to their clinical experience, proximity to the medical team and direct access to FMC patients' charts, FMC pharmacists (FMC-PH) are in a key position to support community pharmacists (COM-PH) in order to optimize the quality of pharmaceutical care dispensed to their common patients. The liaison pharmacist service was created within a larger study of COM-PH interventions and their impact on medication when receiving a doctor request for medication profile analysis and a standard prescription or a prescription enriched with additional clinical information. Forty-nine COM-PH interested in participating in the larger study attended one of 3 workshops offered by pharmacy residents, FMC-PH and a physician. Information on the clinic and the new service of liaison as well as case studies on medication adjustment and laboratory monitoring were presented and discussed. A decision aid tool was also provided to participants. A FMC-PH is available from Monday to Friday (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) to answer questions by telephone from COM-PH directly related to FMC's patients' care and links with the medical team when necessary. Liaison tasks were added to other clinical duties and responsibilities of the FMC-PH. Communications with COM-PH were documented by FMC-PH between November 2007 and April 2008. Deliverables: Fifty-eight communications involving 27 COM-PH and 49 patients have been documented. Among 78 drug-related issues discussed with FMC-PH, the most frequent were obtaining results or suggesting laboratory monitoring (35%), discordance between pharmacy medication chart and FMC chart (18%), dose too high (8%), additional medication needed (8%), dose too low (5%) and inappropriate medication. Among the 93 actions taken by FMC-PH in response to contact with COM-PH, the most frequent were transferring additional laboratory results (29%) or additional information related to treatment (22%) to COM-PH, transferring new information and recommendations to the medical team via case discussion with treating physician and/or writing a note in the FMC patient's chart (22%), revising medication history (14%) and correcting patient's medication profile in the FMC chart (11%). The mean time per action was 9.5 ± 8.9 minutes. Conclusion: The liaison pharmacist service was used regularly by the community pharmacists and was easily integrated in the FMC-pharmacists' tasks. Community pharmacists' calls resulted in additional information or correction of available information to the FMC team in 33% of cases. Community pharmacists were very interested in obtaining laboratory results and additional clinical information to optimize their patient follow-up. This model of liaison succeeded in increasing collaboration and improving flow of information between pharmacists.