Pharmacists' perceptions of their practice: a comparison between Alberta and Northern Ireland

Objective To explore how community pharmacists from Alberta, Canada, and Northern Ireland, UK, describe what a pharmacist does and to compare their responses. Methods Two hundred community pharmacists were interviewed using the telephone. The interviewer who introduced himself as a researcher aske...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The International journal of pharmacy practice 2012-02, Vol.20 (1), p.57-64
Main Authors:	Al Hamarneh, Yazid N., Rosenthal, Meagen, McElnay, James C., Tsuyuki, Ross T.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Alberta Attitude of Health Personnel community pharmacy Community Pharmacy Services - organization & administration Health Care Surveys Humans Northern Ireland Patient-Centered Care - organization & administration patient-centred Pharmacists - organization & administration Pharmacists - statistics & numerical data product-focused Professional Role top of mind word-cloud
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Summary:	Objective To explore how community pharmacists from Alberta, Canada, and Northern Ireland, UK, describe what a pharmacist does and to compare their responses. Methods Two hundred community pharmacists were interviewed using the telephone. The interviewer who introduced himself as a researcher asked two questions about the period over which the participants had been practising pharmacy and the way they describe what a pharmacist does. Responses were categorised into three categories: patient‐centred, product‐focused and ambiguous. Word‐cloud analysis was used to assess the use of patient‐care‐related terms. Key findings Of the responses from community pharmacists in Alberta, 29% were categorised as patient‐centred, 45% as product‐focused and 26% as ambiguous. In Northern Ireland, 40% of the community pharmacists' responses were categorised as patient‐centred, 39% as product‐focused and 21% as ambiguous. Community pharmacists in Northern Ireland provided more patient‐centred responses than community pharmacists in Alberta (P = 0.013). The word‐cloud analysis showed that ‘medicine’ and ‘dispense’ were the most frequently reported terms. It also highlighted a relative lack of patient‐care‐related terms. Conclusions The findings of the present study are suggestive of some movement towards patient‐centredness; however, product‐focused practice still predominates within the pharmacy profession in Alberta and Northern Ireland. The relative lack of patient‐care‐related terms suggests that patient care is still not the first priority for pharmacists in both Alberta and Northern Ireland.
ISSN:	0961-7671 2042-7174