Shifting perspectives - Planning for the future of the pharmacy profession taking current labor market trends into consideration

Perception of Polish pharmacy students on simulation exercise in pharmaceutical care for diabetes-a pilot study

BACKGROUND

The transformation of a pharmacist's role from that of a drug dispenser to an advisor and patient educator, partially accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a thorough change in the pharmacy curriculum. Preparation for the provision of modern pharmaceutical services requires the use of the most advanced teaching methods, such as pharmaceutical simulation. Knowledge alone does not guarantee students' readiness and motivation to take on new challenges in their professional work, but it seems crucial that graduates of medical faculties have the ability to practically apply their knowledge, including in new and nonstandard situations. Therefore, in our study, we proposed an intervention using a simulation method (peer role play) in teaching pharmaceutical care, and we assessed its impact on students' levels of self-perceived confidence and self-efficacy in accordance with Bandura's theory. The aim of the study was to verify whether the introduction of these types of classes could be a useful element of pharmacy curriculum renewal.

METHODS

The questionnaire-based study was conducted during pharmaceutical care peer role-playing classes in a simulation environment with a debriefing session among 85 final-year pharmacy students at Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland. The questionnaire consisted of two surveys: the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and a pre-post self-assessment and self-efficacy questionnaire.

RESULTS

There was a positive correlation between the GSE score and self-efficacy (R = 0.52, p < 0.0001). A statistically significant increase in the post-self-assessment of all the skills and competencies included in the survey in the field of pharmaceutical care of a patient with diabetes compared to the pre-values was also observed (p < 0.001). Additionally, the students' self-efficacy in terms of communicating with patients was greater following the class than before the class (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The peer role-play active teaching method was found to be a cost-effective method allowing for an increase in the self-assessment and self-efficacy of pharmacy students in diabetic patient pharmaceutical care. However, further in-depth research is needed to fully confirm the effectiveness of simulation exercises for teaching pharmacy undergraduates.

Evaluating healthcare professionals' perceptions of dispensing separation and sale of pharmacy medicine in Brunei Darussalam

BACKGROUND

Pharmacy medicine (P) is obtained exclusively from a pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist. This study aims to understand the perception of healthcare professionals towards the dispensing separation, as well as the dispensing of pharmacy medicine by community pharmacies to enhance patient health outcomes in Brunei Darussalam.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted between 1st March 2023 and 20th April 2023 among healthcare professionals. A newly designed and validated questionnaire was used. Its face and content validity, along with internal consistency, was adequately established. Convenient sampling was employed to recruit participants for the study. Statistical analysis using one-way ANOVA was performed, considering a p-value < 0.05 as statistically significant.

RESULTS

The study compiled data from 108 participants, comprising doctors (38.9%) and pharmacy technicians (45.4%). Approximately 28.7% of respondents had 11-20 years of healthcare experience, while 25.9% had less than 5 years. Nearly all respondents (98.1%) agreed on the vital role pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play in prescription checks. A significant number of participants (93.5%) agreed that Brunei's current medicine dispensing system needs improvement. The mean total score for the perception of medicine dispensing in Brunei was 3.79 ± 1.103. A statistically significant difference was found between the perception score and the respondents' profession (p = 0.018), but not with their age, experience, or place of work. Respondents' awareness score showed no statistically significant correlation with their profession, age, experience, or place of work.

CONCLUSION

The study underscores the necessity for more patient-centered care in community pharmacies in Brunei Darussalam. The country's healthcare professionals should recognize the potential advantages of expanding pharmacy services. However, to implement these services successfully, regulatory restrictions and infrastructure limitations must be addressed.

Pharmacy from the perspectives of other health professions: An intervention to foster professional identity among freshmen pharmacy students

Background

Professional identity is crucial for the development of pharmacy students' professional confidence, learning motivation and future career choices. However, how to develop students' professional identity in pharmacy education is an underdeveloped field of research. The critical component of professional identity has been considered formed as a result of stepwise socialization. Therefore, pharmacy professional identity might be influenced by associations with other health care professionals, such as physicians and nurses, who are involved in health care collaboration with pharmacists.

Objectives

This work aimed to investigate the effect of a student-led interview intervention called "Pharmacy from the perspectives of other health professions" as an intervention on pharmacy freshmen's perceptions and positivity toward the pharmacy profession.

Methods

In this prospective pre/postintervention study, the effect of the interview intervention on students' job preferences as well as attitudes toward the pharmacy profession and pharmacists' role in health care was evaluated among 70 first-year pharmacy undergraduates equally divided into intervention and control groups using a self-developed questionnaire.

Results

Compared with the controls, the numbers of respondents reporting no specific reasons for selecting the pharmacy profession and stating that they were unclear about their preferred post-graduation work sector were significantly reduced after the intervention. Participating in the intervention increased the number of students who agreed or strongly agreed that they would have a fulfilling and socially respectable career. Significantly more students in the intervention group agreed with the pharmacists' role in health care as well as the current situation of pharmacy human resources than in the control group.

Conclusion

This student-led interview intervention could be applied as an effective tool for improving students' professional identity and positivity in pharmacy education.

"Reigns but does not govern": A reflection on professionalism and the autonomy of the pharmacist

INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, the professionalization of pharmacy has been debated worldwide. With the advent of industrialization, pharmacist autonomy has weakened, especially in the retail pharmacy market. Manegers and mentors of pharmacy chains serve as links between the profession and drug users. This study sought to understand the perceptions of retail pharmacy stakeholders regarding pharmacist autonomy and how to improve it, and to reflect on theories of professionalism.

METHOD

19 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed through analyst triangulation and categorical content analysis, using the ATLAS.ti software.

RESULTS

Interviews were conducted with nine mentors and ten managers in retail medicine. They reported aspects related to managerial and technical autonomy regulated by law, and strategies for enhancing professional autonomy in retail pharmacy. Autonomy was considered limited by pharmacists' dependence on employability and self-devaluation; and market control exposed the weaknesses in pharmaceutical professionalism. Entrepreneurship and ownership attitude strategies were feasible only in a retail micro-political context.

CONCLUSION

The retail medicine continues to have business model centered on the product and controlling the pharmaceutical practice model. To ensure autonomy and professional strengthening, it is necessary that pharmacy recognizes itself as a clinical profession and develops a stable professional identity.

Why are we still waiting? Views of future-focused policy and the direction of the profession from dissatisfied recent pharmacy graduates

Purpose

The New Zealand Pharmacy Action Plan 2016–20 acknowledges the young, highly qualified pharmacist workforce, and seeks to address pharmacist underutilisation in the wider health setting. Anecdotal evidence suggests many recently qualified pharmacists are dissatisfied with the profession. Therefore, those completing BPharm programs after 2002, who had left or were seriously considering leaving the New Zealand pharmacy profession, were invited to comment on future-focused pharmacy documents, and the current direction of pharmacy in New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach

An online questionnaire was open December 2018 to February 2019. Recruitment occurred via e-mail lists of universities and professional organisations, print and social media, and word-of-mouth. Free-text responses were thematically analysed using a general inductive approach.

Findings

From the 328 analysable surveys received, 172 respondents commented on the documents and/or direction of the pharmacy profession. Views were mixed. Overarching document-related themes were positive direction, but concern over achievability, the lack of funding details, lack of implementation, their benefits for pharmacists and the public, and ability to bring about change and secure a future for the profession. Overall pharmacy was considered an unattractive profession needing to change.

Originality/value

This study highlights dissatisfied recent BPharm graduates agree with the vision in the documents but do not see progress towards achieving the vision occurring, leading to frustration and exit in some cases. Policymakers should be aware of these views as considerable resource goes into their development.

Potential Scenarios and Hazards in the Work of the Future: A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed and Gray Literatures

It would be useful for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers to anticipate the hazards that workers will face in the future. The focus of this study is a systematic review of published information to identify and characterize scenarios and hazards in the future of work. Eleven bibliographic databases were systematically searched for papers and reports published from 1999 to 2019 that described future of work scenarios or identified future work-related hazards. To compile a comprehensive collection of views of the future, supplemental and ad hoc searches were also performed. After screening all search records against a set of predetermined criteria, the review yielded 36 references (17 peer-reviewed, 4 gray, and 15 supplemental) containing scenarios. In these, the future of work was described along multiple conceptual axes (e.g. labor market changes, societal values, and manual versus cognitive work). Technology was identified as the primary driver of the future of work in most scenarios, and there were divergent views in the literature as to whether technology will create more or fewer jobs than it displaces. Workforce demographics, globalization, climate change, economic conditions, and urbanization were also mentioned as influential factors. Other important themes included human enhancement, social isolation, loneliness, worker monitoring, advanced manufacturing, hazardous exposures, sustainability, biotechnology, and synthetic biology. Pandemics have not been widely considered in the future of work literature, but the recent COVID-19 pandemic illustrates that was short-sighted. Pandemics may accelerate future of work trends and merit critical consideration in scenario development. Many scenarios described 'new' or 'exacerbated' psychosocial hazards of work, whereas comparatively fewer discussed physical, chemical, or biological hazards. Various preventive recommendations were identified. In particular, reducing stress associated with precarious work and its requirements of continual skill preparation and training was acknowledged as critical for protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the future workforce. In conclusion, the future of work will be comprised of diverse complex scenarios and a mosaic of old and new hazards. These findings may serve as the basis for considering how to shape the future of work.

The Role of Hospital and Community Pharmacists in the Management of COVID-19: Towards an Expanded Definition of the Roles, Responsibilities, and Duties of the Pharmacist

Since late December 2019, a novel, emerging coronavirus was identified as the infectious agent responsible for a generally mild but sometimes severe and even life-threatening disease, termed as "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). The pathogen was initially named as "2019 novel coronavirus" (2019-nCoV) and later renamed as "Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus type 2" (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 quickly spread from the first epicenter, the city of Wuhan, province of Hubei, mainland China, into neighboring countries, and became a global pandemic. As of July 15th 2020, the outbreak is still ongoing, with SARS-CoV-2 affecting 213 countries and territories. The coronavirus has caused a dramatic toll of deaths and imposed a severe burden, both from a societal and economic point of view. COVID-19 has challenged health systems, straining and overwhelming healthcare facilities and settings, including hospital and community pharmacies. On the other hand, COVID-19 has propelled several changes. During the last decades, pharmacy has shifted from being products-based and patient-facing to being services-based and patient-centered. Pharmacies have transitioned from being compounding centers devoted to the manipulation of materia medica to pharmaceutical centers, clinical pharmacies and fully integrated "medical-pharmaceutical networks", providing a significant range of non-prescribing services. Moreover, roles, duties and responsibilities of pharmacists have paralleled such historical changes and have known a gradual expansion, incorporating new skills and reflecting new societal demands and challenges. The COVID-19 outbreak has unearthed new opportunities for pharmacists: community and hospital pharmacists have, indeed, played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that a fully integrated, inter-sectoral and inter-professional collaboration is necessary to face crises and public health emergencies. Preliminary, emerging evidence seems to suggest that, probably, a new era in the history of pharmacies ("the post-COVID-19 post-pharmaceutical care era") has begun, with community pharmacists acquiring more professional standing, being authentic heroes and frontline health workers.

Pharmacy, pharmaceuticals and public policy: Solving the puzzle

Increasing pressure on healthcare demand and delivery has resulted in the development of new roles and services for pharmacists. As current models of pharmacy practice continue to be evaluated, pharmacists must be involved in identifying new areas that may require research. In order to do so, the current vision of the future of pharmacy practice is discussed in this commentary. Issues such as adequate funding, professional competency and building strong interprofessional relationships are still identified as major barriers to change. These barriers have been grouped into the themes that form a conceptual model of the factors affecting the future of pharmacy practice, which have led to the development of key questions for the future.

Projecting the future size of the Lebanese pharmacy workforce: forecasts until the year 2050

BACKGROUND

Despite the rigorous regulations governing the pharmacy profession in Lebanon, the increasing numbers of pharmacy graduates seem to be the greatest threat of demise. No forecast is available to assess the long-term projections of pharmacists supply.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this manuscript is to project the future size of the Lebanese pharmacy workforce till 2050 and discuss their potential consequences on the labour market.

METHODS

This study was carried out in collaboration with the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL), where official numbers were retrieved from the registered pharmacists' database from 2006 to 2017. The data were analyzed as time series using the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) method. Projected numbers were plotted using Microsoft Excel office.

RESULTS

The ratio of pharmacists to 10 000 inhabitants up till the end of 2017 was estimated at 17.52, compared with a worldwide mean of 5.09, with a continuous increase seen with the coming years, possibly reaching an estimated 41.17 pharmacists per 10 000 inhabitants by the year 2050. The total number of pharmacies increased from 1546 in 2006 up to 3174 at the end of 2017 nationwide, with a major increase seen in Bekaa (206.35%) and South Lebanon (171.08%) governorates, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Our study shows that the dramatic increase in pharmacy graduates will worsen with time. To curb it, it is important to vote and apply new laws, and initiate a collaborative work between academia, professional associations, and employers from all sectors to find innovative solutions.