Pharmacists' approaches to vaccination consultations in Switzerland: a qualitative study comparing the roles of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and biomedicine.

BACKGROUND: Many community pharmacies in Switzerland provide complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches in addition to providing biomedical services, and a few pharmacies specialise in CAM. A common perception is that CAM providers are sceptical towards, or opposed to, vaccination. OBJECTIVES: Key objectives of this study are to examine the potential roles of biomedically oriented and CAM-specialised pharmacists regarding vaccine counselling and to better understand the association between vaccine hesitancy and CAM. DESIGN: We conducted semistructured, qualitative interviews. Transcripts were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Interview questions were related to: type of pharmaceutical care practised, views on CAM and biomedicine, perspectives on vaccination, descriptions of vaccination consultations in community pharmacies and views on vaccination rates. SETTING: Qualitative interviews in three language regions of Switzerland (German, French and Italian). PARTICIPANTS: We interviewed 18 pharmacists (N=11 biomedically oriented, N=7 CAM specialised). RESULTS: Pharmacist participants expressed generally positive attitudes towards vaccination. Biomedically oriented pharmacists mainly advised customers to follow official vaccination recommendations but rarely counselled vaccine-hesitant customers. CAM-specialised pharmacists were not as enthusiastic advocates of the Swiss vaccination recommendations as the biomedically oriented pharmacists we interviewed. Rather, they considered that each customer should receive individualised, nuanced vaccination advice so that customers can reach their own decisions. CAM-specialised pharmacists described how mothers in particular preferred getting a second opinion when they felt insufficiently advised by biomedically oriented paediatricians. CONCLUSIONS: Vaccination counselling in community pharmacies represents an additional option to customers who have unmet vaccination consultation needs and who seek reassurance from healthcare professionals (HCPs) other than physicians. By providing individualised vaccination counselling to vaccine-hesitant customers, CAM-specialised pharmacists are likely meeting specific needs of vaccine-hesitant customers. As such, research and implementation efforts should more systematically involve pharmacists as important actors in vaccination provision. CAM-specialised pharmacists particularly should not be neglected as they are important HCPs who counsel vaccine-hesitant customers.

"Vaccination needs to be easy for the people, right ?": a qualitative study of the roles of physicians and pharmacists regarding vaccination in Switzerland.

OBJECTIVE: Vaccination in pharmacies has been a key component of national vaccination strategies to facilitate vaccination access. Qualitative data on the perspectives of professional stakeholders on vaccination in pharmacies and on the professional relations of pharmacists with physicians regarding increasing immunisation rates is limited. We conducted a qualitative study in Switzerland. The main aim was to gain further insight into professional stakeholders' perspectives on vaccination counselling and administration conducted in pharmacies, and to further understand their views on physicians' and pharmacists' roles in increasing immunisation rates. DESIGN: We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews. We coded and analysed transcripts using thematic analysis. SETTING: Face-to-face interviews took place in German-speaking and French-speaking regions of Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: We interviewed 14 key vaccination stakeholders including health authorities, heads of pharmacy management and professional association boards. All participants had a background in medicine or pharmacy. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged from the qualitative data: (1) Participants viewed pharmacists as competent to provide vaccination counselling and administration based on their university training; (2) interprofessional cooperation between physicians and pharmacists on vaccination topics is limited and should be improved; and (3) pharmacists play an important role in increasing immunisation rates by facilitating vaccination access and through provision of vaccination counselling. CONCLUSION: By providing vaccination counselling and administering vaccines, pharmacists play an important public health role. Healthcare policies and health authorities should encourage more involvement of pharmacists and encourage interprofessional cooperation between physicians and pharmacists in order to improve vaccination counselling and increase immunisation rates.