Investigating the Views and Attitudes of Community Pharmacists in Abu Dhabi towards Extending Their Practice Roles
Objective: To investigate the views and attitudes of community pharmacists in Abu Dhabi (AD) towards extending their practice roles. The aims were to review and critically appraise the literature on the current and extended roles of community pharmacists in AD and the rest of the world; to establish the current roles being practiced by community pharmacists in AD, their preferences for extension of their current roles and attempts taken by them in relation to this; to identify the perceived advantages, disadvantages, barriers, and facilitators to role extension in AD community pharmacists’ opinion. This information was then used to make recommendations for future research and the further extension of community pharmacists’ roles in AD.
Setting: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Key findings: The response rate was 20% (137/685). Selling and counselling on OTC drugs and counselling on prescribed medications were practiced most frequently by community pharmacists in AD. The current roles infrequently practiced by community pharmacists in AD are public health promotion and reporting of adverse drug reactions, interactions, and prescribing errors. More than 90% of respondents supported or strongly supported further extension of community pharmacist role in AD. Respondents were very interested in the minor ailment scheme/service (41.6%), reviewing and monitoring prescribing guidelines (38.7%), and supporting carers of patients with chronic disease (38%). Qualitative data showed interest in extending counselling roles and public health promotion. Respondents strongly agreed that advantages to community pharmacists’ role extension include increased confidence and job satisfaction (56.2%), easier and faster access to healthcare (48.2%), and safer treatment for patients (46%); disadvantages include increased workload on community pharmacists and a tense relationship with physicians. Important barriers to role extension include lack of space and facilities, incentives, and time to participate in training/educational programs. Necessary facilitators to role extension include making the costs of training/educational programs more affordable and providing financial rewards to community pharmacists practicing extended roles.
Conclusion: There is a strong support from community pharmacists in AD to extend their roles due to the perceived advantages of this. They expressed more interest in certain roles. However, community pharmacists in AD realize that there may be disadvantages to theirrole extension and that there are certain barriers that must first be considered and addressed in order for role extension to occur. Several facilitators were agreed on or suggested to encourage role extension in AD. Health authorities could use this information to plan future changes in community pharmacists’ roles in AD.
Mirai Mourad William Sadek*
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