Pharmacists' Perceptions of Their Professional Role: Insights into Hospital Pharmacy Culture

摘要

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impacts of pharmacists on patient outcomes. To capitalize on these positive impacts, hospital pharmacy organizations around the world are now calling on pharmacists to shift their focus from distribution of medications to patient outcomes. This new emphasis is consistent with the vision statement for the profession of pharmacy in Canada, as set out in the Blueprint for Pharmacy: "Optimal drug therapy outcomes for Canadians through patient-centred care". Given the ambitious nature of this statement and these goals, it is essential to understand what pharmacists currendy think of their practice.Objective: To conduct a qualitative and semiquantitative analysis of hospital pharmacists' perceptions of dieir role in patient care.Methods: A researcher posing as a University of Alberta student who was studying how health professionals use language to describe what they do contacted the pharmacy departments of all hospitals in Alberta. The "top-of-mind" approach was used in asking hospital pharmacists 2 questions: (1) How many years have you been practising pharmacy? (2) In 3 or 4 words (or phrases), from your perspective could you please tell me, "What does a pharmacist do"? These techniques were used to minimize the impact of social desirability bias. Content analysis was used to categorize hospital pharmacists' responses into 4 broad categories: patient-centred, drug-focused, drug distribution, and ambiguous.Results: A total of 103 phone calls were made to hospital pharmacies, and 85 pharmacists contacted in this way were willing to participate in the survey. Hospital pharmacists provided 333 individual responses to the question about dieir activities. Of these, 79 (23.7%) were patient-centred, 98 (29.4%) were drug-focused, and 82 (24.6%) were in the drug-distribution category. Ambiguous responses accounted for the remaining 74 (22.2%).Conclusion: Aspects of care categorized as other than patient-centred shoul...