Gatekeeper training needs of community pharmacy staff

ObjectivesCommunity pharmacists and their staff have the potential to contribute to antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). However, their barriers and opportunities are not well understood. The aim was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of community pharmacists and their teams around AMS to inform intervention development.DesignInterviews and focus groups were used to explore the views of pharmacists, pharmacy staff, general practitioners (GPs), members of pharmacy organisations and commissioners. The questioning schedule was developed using the Theoretical Domains Framework which helped inform recommendations to facilitate AMS in community pharmacy.Results8 GPs, 28 pharmacists, 13 pharmacy staff, 6 representatives from pharmacy organisations in England and Wales, and 2 local stakeholders participated.Knowledge and skills both facilitated or hindered provision of self-care and compliance advice by different grades of pharmacy staff. Some staff were not aware of the impact of giving self-care and compliance advice to help control antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The pharmacy environment created barriers to AMS; this included lack of time of well-qualified staff leading to misinformation from underskilled staff to patients about the need for antibiotics or the need to visit the GP, this was exacerbated by lack of space. AMS activities were limited by absent diagnoses on antibiotic prescriptions.Several pharmacy staff felt that undertaking patient examinations, questioning the rationale for antibiotic prescriptions and performing audits would allow them to provide more tailored AMS advice.ConclusionsInterventions are required to overcome a lack of qualified staff, time and space to give patients AMS advice. Staff need to understand how self-care and antibiotic compliance advice can help control AMR. A multifaceted educational intervention including information for staff with feedback about the advice given may help. Indication for a prescription would enable pharmacists to provide more targeted antibiotic advice. Commissioners should consider the pharmacists’ role in examining patients, and giving advice about antibiotic prescriptions.

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Australian Community Pharmacy Harm-Minimisation Services: Scope for Service Expansion to Improve Healthcare Access

Pharmacy ◽

10.3390/pharmacy9020095 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 95

Author(s):

Sara S. McMillan ◽

Hidy Chan ◽

Laetitia H. Hattingh

Keyword(s):

Community Pharmacy ◽

Healthcare Access ◽

Further Education ◽

Community Pharmacies ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Pharmacy Staff ◽

Harm Minimisation ◽

Staff Members ◽

Education Support

Community pharmacies are well positioned to participate in harm-minimisation services to reduce harms caused by both licit and illicit substances. Considering developments in pharmacist practices and the introduction of new professional pharmacy services, we identified a need to explore the contemporary role of community pharmacy in harm minimisation. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to explore the opinions of stakeholders, pharmacy staff, and clients about the role of community pharmacy in harm minimisation, including provision of current services, experiences, and expectations. Participants (n = 28) included 5 stakeholders, 9 consumers, and 14 staff members from seven community pharmacies. Three over-arching themes were identified across the three participants groups: (i) scope and provision, (ii) complexity, and (iii) importance of person-centred advice and support in relation to community pharmacy harm minimisation services. Community pharmacies are valuable healthcare destinations for delivery of harm minimisation services, with scope for service expansion. Further education, support, and remuneration are needed, as well as linkage to other sector providers, in order to ensure that pharmacists and pharmacy staff are well equipped to provide a range of harm minimisation services.

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Impact of electronic prescription on the job descriptions of community pharmacy staff in Finland - a survey of pharmacy owners

Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research ◽

10.1111/jphs.12145 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 225-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Johanna Timonen ◽

Hanna Kauppinen ◽

Riitta Ahonen

Keyword(s):

Community Pharmacy ◽

Job Descriptions ◽

Pharmacy Staff ◽

Electronic Prescription

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Over-The-Counter Codeine: Can Community Pharmacy Staff Nudge Customers into Its Safe and Appropriate Use?

Pharmacy ◽

10.3390/pharmacy8040185 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 185

Author(s):

Sapana Mody ◽

Charlotte L. Kirkdale ◽

Tracey Thornley ◽

Aimi Dickinson ◽

Anthony J. Avery ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Pain Relief ◽

Community Pharmacy ◽

Health Concern ◽

Community Pharmacies ◽

Public Health Concern ◽

Appropriate Use ◽

Pharmacy Staff ◽

Over The Counter ◽

Web Based

The misuse of opioids, including codeine which is sold over-the-counter (OTC) in United Kingdom (UK) community pharmacies, is a growing public health concern. An educational Patient Safety Card was developed and piloted to see if it nudged customers into the safe and appropriate use of OTC codeine. Exploratory analysis was conducted by (i) recording quantitative interactions for people requesting OTC codeine in community pharmacies; and (ii) a web-based pharmacy staff survey. Twenty-four pharmacies submitted data on 3993 interactions using the Patient Safety Card. Staff found the majority of interactions (91.3%) to be very or quite easy. Following an interaction using the card, customers known to pharmacy staff as frequent purchasers of OTC codeine were more likely not to purchase a pain relief medicine compared to customers not known to staff (5.5% of known customers did not purchase any pain relief product versus 1.1% for unknown customers (χ2 = 41.73, df = 1, p < 0.001)). These results support both the use of a visual educational intervention to encourage appropriate use of OTC codeine in community pharmacy and the principles behind better self-care.

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