Development of a patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ) for diabetes management in Thailand and Lao PDR.

In a cross-sectional analytical study, a Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) for diabetes management was developed and tested in Thailand and Lao PDR. A systematic review of qualitative studies was conducted to formulate themes of the PSQ. The 20-item PSQ was prepared in Thai and translated to Lao, with subsequent backward translation. Both versions were tested for reliability and construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The study was performed at a university hospital in Thailand and two central hospitals in Vientiane, Lao PDR. There were 300 diabetic patients from Thailand (n = 150) and Lao PDR (n = 150). The 5-factor Thai version showed 74.52% of total explained variance with good internal consistency and satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices (χ2/df = 1.91, GFI = 0.83, CFI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.063, RMSEA = 0.078). The five factors were 1) Standard of Service, 2) Diabetic Service, 3) Competency of Providers, 4) Competency of Pharmacists, and 5) Communication with Providers. For the Lao version, 20 items showed a 3-factor structure with a total explained variance of 71.09%. Goodness-of-fit indices for the Lao model were satisfactory (χ2/df = 2.45, GFI = 0.78, CFI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.075 and RMSEA = 0.095). The results showed the PSQ Thai and Lao versions were valid and reliable for assessing patient satisfaction with diabetes management, however more testing of the questionnaire is appropriate.

Factors contributing to pharmacists’ intention to provide weight management service in community pharmacy settings: A systematic review

Background: Obesity is one of the health problems which could cause health impacts, as well as economic and social impacts. Community pharmacists are accessible primary health care providers who can play a role in counselling on diet and exercise to control weight and correcting medication misuse for weight control. Literature has shown the effectiveness of weight management services (WMS) provided by community pharmacists, but the percentages of this service provision were low. Objective: To systematically review contributing factors for community pharmacists’ intention to provide weight management services. Results: The systematic review included 3,884 participants from 24 studies. There were four major dimensions of weight management service in community pharmacies: 1) patient recruitment, 2) problem identification and referral, 3) counselling, and 4) monitoring. Pharmacists indicated difficulty in starting a conversation about weight with patients. Most pharmacists performed diet and weight-loss product counselling, but few pharmacists monitored patients’ progress and adherence to WMS because of the follow-up difficulty. They recommended the use of mobile applications and social media to facilitate monitoring. Pharmacists viewed that those weight-loss products needed to be better regulated. Therefore, it should be pharmacists’ responsibility to correct the irrational use of these products. Pharmacists’ authority, inadequate pharmacist staff, lack of patient awareness, patients’ demand, and private counselling areas were the barriers to weight management service. Knowledge and training, accreditation, time for pharmacists to study, reimbursement, multidisciplinary collaboration, and health resource support could motivate pharmacists to provide WMS. To start WMS, pharmacists reported the need for knowledge about diet, lifestyle modification, weight-loss products, and improving patient engagement in weight management programs. (AU)

A systematic review of community pharmacist practices in complementary medicine

Background: The people who use complementary medicines (CMs) believe that these medicines are safe and harmless. They could easily access CMs like herbal or traditional medicines in community pharmacies. Therefore, community pharmacists are important professionals in advising the safe choices of CMs and providing evidence-based information for customers to decrease adverse effects of CMs. Objectives: To systematically review knowledge, attitude, and practices of community pharmacists about CMs, and the factors associated with CM practices of dispensing, recommending and counseling patients, and answering the patients’ queries. Method: An electronic search was performed with four databases: PubMed, Scopus, SpringerLink and ScienceDirect, from 1990 to 19th May 2022. The inclusion criteria were studies 1) about knowledge, attitude, and/or practices of community pharmacists about CMs, 2) written in English, 3) conducted with quantitative methods, and 4) able to retrieve full text. (AU)

A systematic review on pharmacists' turnover and turnover intention.

BACKGROUND: Turnover is an important issue in all healthcare professions including pharmacy practice settings. A high turnover rate of pharmacists, not only has negative financial impact, but also reduces quality of care and patient safety. The high turnover also increases workload and job stress which can increase job errors and decrease job efficiency and performance in pharmacy practices. OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the extent of pharmacists' turnover and their intention to leave their jobs or the pharmacy profession. METHODS: An electronic search was performed from database inception to December 19, 2020 using the following 6 databases; PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, ERIC, and ERIC-EBSCO. Articles were included if they were relevant to reports of pharmacist turnover or turnover intention. Only research studies were included, but not editorials, letters, or review articles. RESULTS: Twenty-eight studies were contained within this systematic review. Using the QualSyst assessment tool to assess the included article qualities, all studies demonstrated good quality with quality assessment score of 0.75. Fifteen studies (53.6%) were conducted from the US, 3 studies (10.7%) from Taiwan, 2 studies (7.1%) from the UK, and the remaining studies from Lithuania, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Jamaica. The turnover of the pharmacists from their jobs ranged from 8.6 to 17%, and the turnover from the pharmacy profession was in the range of 6-9%. The turnover intention of the pharmacists in their jobs was from 13% to 61.2%, and the turnover intention in the pharmacy profession was 6.5%-18.8%. Hospital pharmacists had significantly higher turnover intentions than community ones. The turnover intention rates of both hospital and community pharmacists have gradually increased over time in both European countries and Asian countries. CONCLUSION: Based on the included articles, pharmacists' turnover rate appeared to increase over time. However, based on the heterogeneity of studies, further research is warranted to confirm this and to help to identify the potential causes of turnover intention since intention was related to behavior.

A systematic review of community pharmacist practices in complementary medicine.

Background: The people who use complementary medicines (CMs) believe that these medicines are safe and harmless. They could easily access CMs like herbal or traditional medicines in community pharmacies. Therefore, community pharmacists are important professionals in advising the safe choices of CMs and providing evidence-based information for customers to decrease adverse effects of CMs. Objectives: To systematically review knowledge, attitude, and practices of community pharmacists about CMs, and the factors associated with CM practices of dispensing, recommending and counseling patients, and answering the patients' queries. Method: An electronic search was performed with four databases: PubMed, Scopus, SpringerLink and ScienceDirect, from 1990 to 19th May 2022. The inclusion criteria were studies 1) about knowledge, attitude, and/or practices of community pharmacists about CMs, 2) written in English, 3) conducted with quantitative methods, and 4) able to retrieve full text. Results: Twenty-three studies were included in this systematic review. Some studies showed that less than half of the pharmacists asked or counselled about CMs to their patients and answered the patients' queries about CMs. Only 20% of the pharmacists did report CM side-effects. Training or education about CMs was a common factor associated with the CM practice of dispensing, recommending, counseling, and answering the patients' queries about CMs. CMs recommended most by community pharmacists were vitamins & minerals, food or dietary supplements, fish oil and probiotics. The most common dispensed CMs were vitamins & minerals, herbs, food or dietary supplements, fish oil and essential oils. Lacks of reliable information sources and scientific evidence were common barriers for the CM practices. Being less expensive than conventional medicines motivated the pharmacists to recommend and discuss about CMs. The community pharmacists that participated in included studies suggested strengthening CM trainings and highlight the pharmacist role in CM therapy. Conclusion: A high percentage of community pharmacists did dispense CMs to their patients, while a low percentage of the pharmacists did report CM side effects. Pharmacists were most comfortable recommending and responding the patients' CM queries. Training or education about CMs associated with CM dispensing, recommending, discussing, and answering the patients' queries about CMs was recommended.

College/school of pharmacy affiliation and community pharmacies' involvement in public health activities.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between pharmacy college/school affiliation and community pharmacies' involvement in immunization and emergency preparedness activities. METHODS: Telephone interviews were completed with 1,704 community pharmacies randomly sampled from 17 states to determine the pharmacies' involvement in immunization promotion, vaccine distribution, in-house immunization delivery, and health emergency preparedness and response, affiliation with college/school of pharmacy, and selected pharmacy and public health-related characteristics. RESULTS: Pharmacy college/school-affiliated community pharmacies were more likely than non-affiliated pharmacies to participate in immunization and emergency preparedness when controlling for pharmacy characteristics. College/school affiliation generally became nonsignificant, however, when public health-related characteristics were included in the analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Affiliation with a college/school of pharmacy was related to community pharmacies' involvement in immunization and emergency preparedness.

Social constructivist learning environment in an online professional practice course.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the online social constructivist learning environment (SCLE) and student perceptions of the outcomes of the online introductory module of pharmacy professional practice that was designed based on social constructivism theory. DESIGN: The online introductory module of pharmacy professional practice in pharmaceutical marketing and business was carefully designed by organizing various activities, which were intended to encourage social interaction among students. The Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) was applied to assess the SCLE. Course evaluation questionnaires were administered to assess student perceptions of this online module. ASSESSMENT: The result from the COLLES illustrated the development of SCLE in the course. The students reported positive perceptions of the course. CONCLUSION: An online introductory module of pharmacy professional practice in pharmaceutical marketing and business was effective in promoting SCLE.

Community pharmacy involvement in vaccine distribution and administration.

This study identified the type and number of doses of vaccine purchased, distributed, and administered in community pharmacies. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1704 community pharmacies in 17 states (response rate=69.1%). The 17-state population-level projections reveal that about 10% of hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal, MMR, and tetanus-containing vaccines for adults were administered in pharmacies and 90% were distributed to other sources for administration during July 2004-June 2005. Further, 24.1% of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis for children (DTaP), 30.4% of influenza, 36.2% of pneumococcal polysaccharide, and 68.1% of travel vaccines in pharmacy inventory were administered in pharmacies, while the rest of vaccine doses were distributed to other immunizers.

Pharmacy stages of involvement in pharmacy-based immunization services: results from a 17-state survey.

OBJECTIVES: To describe pharmacy stages of involvement in outsourced and inhouse immunization services and to explore the variability of stages of involvement across the sampled states. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Community pharmacies in 17 states, between July 2005 and February 2006. PARTICIPANTS: Key informants of 2,558 community pharmacies. INTERVENTION: Computer-assisted telephone interviews regarding pharmacy involvement in immunization services. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Pharmacies' stage of involvement in immunization services, based on the following categories: no interest; interested, no plan; planning; implemented; discontinued; and no response. RESULTS: Of 2,558 community pharmacies, 1,707 (69.1%) completed the interview. For outsourced immunization services, about one-half of participating pharmacies (50.6%) implemented and planned to implement the services while only 20.7% had no interest in offering the services. These percentages contrast sharply with inhouse immunization services: 24.7% of pharmacies in this category implemented and planned to implement the services and 38.1% indicated no interest in offering the services. Involvement in immunization services varied widely across the 17 states. For outsourced services, implementation ranged from 17.5% to 68.8% of pharmacies, while 13.5% to 39.3% had no interest in the services. For in-house services, implementation ranged from 0% to 42.1% of pharmacies; 19.6% to 49.5% had no interest. CONCLUSION: Understanding stages of pharmacy involvement in immunization services should allow design and implementation of more effective strategies for increasing involvement and decreasing abandonment of immunization practices.