Perceived importance of emotional intelligence for clinical pharmacy practice and suggested improvements: a focus group study of postgraduate pharmacists.

BACKGROUND: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a critical set of skills that impacts clinical pharmacists' well-being and positively influences high-level patient-centred care. Describing pharmacists' perceptions may support the integration of EI development approaches into their professional development continuum. AIM: The aim of this study was to analyse pharmacists' perceptions of the characteristics of emotionally intelligent clinical pharmacists, the importance of EI in clinical practice, and educational models and approaches to enhancing EI. METHOD: A qualitative study with a focus group methodology was conducted with pharmacy practitioners using a semi-structured guide grounded in the EI competency framework and existing qualitative research methodology practices. Purposive sampling was conducted until information and meaning saturation occurred. The focus group recordings were transcribed and independently coded by two researchers. The conventional content analysis of qualitative data was applied with the inductive thematic approach at its core. RESULTS: According to the 17 focus group participants, emotionally intelligent clinical pharmacists are perceived as self-confident communicators who control and manage emotions, work well under pressure, and handle every situation effectively. Emotional self-control, self-awareness, awareness of others, tolerance, understanding, and empathy have emerged as key EI competencies required for challenges in clinical practice. EI lectures with reflections from clinical applications, behaviour modelling, and behaviour-changing methods were perceived to be of particular importance for pharmacist education and development programmes. CONCLUSION: Postgraduate pharmacy practitioners perceived EI competencies as necessary for their professional success and high-quality patient-centred care. They suggested that EI competencies be a focal point in pharmacy professional development programmes.

Psychological safety perception in community pharmacies: A randomized controlled trial of agile interventions.

Background: Agile coaching, recognized as a more advanced methodology compared to education, is hypothesized to yield superior outcomes in enhancing psychological safety perception. Objective: Investigating the effectiveness of agile interventions versus no intervention on psychological safety perception, this randomized controlled trial aimed to clarify outcomes. Methods: The survey sample consisted of 54 licensed pharmacists, with each group comprising 18 participants: E1 underwent Agile Coaching, E2 underwent Agile Education, and C served as the control. After six weeks, psychological safety perception was measured using a validated scale, and statistical analyses, including the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test, were conducted. Results: The group undergoing agile coaching showed the most substantial enhancements in psychological safety perception compared to others. Mann-Whitney U test revealed no significant difference in psychological safety perception between E1 and E2 groups before (Z = -0.938, p = 0.348) and after intervention (Z = -1.269, p = 0.204). Significant differences were observed between E1 and C both before (Z = -2.693, p = 0.007) and after intervention (Z = -1.414, p = 0.157). Significant differences were found between E2 and C before (p = 0.038) but not after intervention (p = 0.962). Conclusions: The findings suggest that agile coaching could be an effective intervention for enhancing psychological safety in organizational settings, particularly in community pharmacies. Further research is warranted to explore long-term effects and generalize findings to broader contexts.

Experience and Attitudes Toward Informed Consent in Pharmacy Practice Research: Do Pharmacists Care?

The experience and attitudes of pharmacists towards research ethics through pharmacy practice research is largely unknown. This study sought to examine the pharmacists' experience if they were research participants and their attitudes on the importance of informed consent in research practice. A cross-sectional survey was employed to achieve the aims of this study. The majority of 433 participating pharmacists were female (86.1%); the average age was 43.2 ± 9.5 years, and their average working experience was 15.0 ± 9.6 years. Almost half of the respondents came from a medium chain pharmacy (47.3%) in Serbia. Older pharmacists reported the experience of being informed in detail by the researcher in their practice, had an informal agreement or a written agreement before the research process started, and believed it was necessary to know their rights in research. The more experienced pharmacists reported capturing objective and distant relationships with researchers when participating in pharmacy practice research. There was a significant difference between the experience of male and female pharmacists in the study. Those employed in medium chain pharmacies believed it was necessary to have informal agreement or a written agreement before beginning the research process. Results indicated that pharmacists show positive attitudes toward informed consent and its importance and these attitudes were more emphatically expressed by older and more experienced pharmacists in Serbia.

Development and initial validation of a scale to measure attitudes and beliefs of pharmacists toward their work with patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Studies on physicians and other health care professionals indicate that attitudes towards and beliefs in their work with patients, can affect the quality of health care, and patients' behaviour and compliance, thus an instrument is needed to survey pharmacists as healthcare providers. The aim of this study was to describe the development and psychometric validation of a survey instrument to assess attitudes and beliefs of pharmacists toward their work with patients (Pharmacists' Attitudes and Beliefs Scale, PABS). The aim of this research was to determine the reliability, validity and factor structure of a newly constructed instrument - PABS. METHODS: The statements from the cognitive, affective, and behavioral areas were identified by literature review and selected to cover the behavior of pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care at community settings. The initial 5-point Likert type scale of 30 items was constructed and after initial validation its revised form developed. The reliability, construct validity and factor structure of the scale were established. RESULTS: The reliability of the scale was determined by the method of internal consistency, on a convenient sample of 123 community pharmacists. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.67. Factor analysis of principal components was performed and 7 factors with latent roots greater than 1 were extracted, explaining 64.92% of total variance, a single 30.84%, 8.20%, 6.55%, 5.63%00, 5.01%, 4.68% and 4.01%. Based on the results of factor analysis in the development of the scale, some items in the scale were excluded (totally 7), so that the revised form of the PABS contained a total of 23 items. CONCLUSION: The initial PABS scale did not meet theoretical statistical criteria for reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient was < 0.7), but the findings indicated its potentially acceptable construct validity. The results support its use as a research tool to assess the behavior of pharmacists in daily practice, and provide its use as an indicator of quality in delivering pharmaceutical care.

A comparison of new and revised Rorschach measures of schizophrenic functioning in a Serbian clinical sample.

We empirically evaluated indexes derived from the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) and the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) that are used for the assessment of psychotic functioning in schizophrenia. We compared the Perceptual Thinking Index (PTI) and the Ego Impairment Index (EII-2) with their revised versions: Thought and Perception Composite (TP-Comp) and EII-3. We evaluated their predictive validity for differentiating schizophrenic from nonschizophrenic patients in a Serbian sample. The sample consisted of 211 (109 men and 102 women, 18-50 years old) inpatients in Serbia who were divided into 2 groups: schizophrenic (100) and nonschizophrenic (111). Test administration, coding, and form quality classification followed CS guidelines. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the new indexes TP-Comp and EII-3 have slightly better predictive power than their counterparts, PTI and EII-2, in identification of schizophrenia, and that TP-Comp performed better than other indexes, although all 4 indexes were successful in differentiating these groups. The results supported the use of TP-Comp in diagnosis of schizophrenia and generally provided evidence for the utility of the Rorschach in evaluating psychosis and for its use in a cross-national context.

[The first state-owned pharmacy in Serbia]. / Prva drzavna apoteka u srbiji.

The first state-owned pharmacy in Serbia dates back to 1836. At first its title was Dvorska i voena apoteka (Court and Military Pharmacy), which later changed to Pravitelstvena apoteka (Government Pharmacy). The pharmacy moved from Kragujevac to Belgrade on two occasions along with the government seat, to finally settle in Belgrade on 8 december 1841 Pravitelstvena Apoteka fostered the development of the pharmaceutical science in the country and acted as a public healthcare institution. It had a state-of-the-art laboratory, equipped for chemical analysis of mineral water and for toxicological and biochemical analysis of water containers. It is the cradle of the applied chemistry in serbia and it operated as a controlling centre for other pharmacies. In 1853, Pravitelstvena Apoteka opened a branch Filijala Pravitelstvene Apoteke, which was run by the Central Pharmacy in Belgrade and the appointed administrator Dorde Bogdanovic, MPharm. On 10 June 1859, both pharmacies were privatised by the decree of the Prince of Serbia, Duke Milos Obrenovic.

Comparative study of experienced and anticipated stigma in Serbia and the world.

AIM: The presented study is part of the International Study of Discrimination and Stigma Outcomes (INDIGO) conducted in 28 countries. The aim of this study was to compare the degree of experienced and anticipated stigma of patients with schizophrenia in Serbia with world results. METHOD: The Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC) was applied in individual interviews. The sample comprised 732 subjects of the main study and 50 subjects from Serbia. RESULTS: The amount of negative experienced discrimination in Serbia is the same as in other participating countries. The Serbian sample shows more negative discrimination in intimate relationships, personal safety and general harm due to the diagnosis, but more positive discrimination within the family, privileges during treatment of somatic illnesses, and benefits enjoyed in social and retirement insurance. The Serbian sample shows less anticipated discrimination in looking for a close relationship and in stopping self from applying for work. The results show that socio-demographic variables could not predict negative experienced and anticipated discrimination, while those same variables enable the prediction of 34% of positive discrimination. CONCLUSION: Compared to other investigated countries, stigmatization processes for persons with schizophrenia do not differ considerably in Serbia, which justifies the implementation of unique anti-stigma programmes and joint upgrading of legal regulations.