A patient perspective of pharmacist prescribing: ‘crossing the specialisms‐crossing the illnesses’

Abstract

Background The drive for non-medical prescribing has progressed quickly since the late 1990s and involves a range of healthcare professionals including pharmacists. As part of a commissioned research project, this qualitative element of a larger case study focused on the views of patients of pharmacist prescribers.

A pharmacy asthma service achieves a change in patient responses from increased awareness to taking responsibility for their asthma

“…[29,30] The themes related to the pharmacist did not change over the three phases of this study. This acceptance of community pharmacists is consistent with other studies where pharmacists have been involved in chronic disease management as well as independent prescribing.…”

Stakeholders' views and experiences of pharmacist prescribing: a systematic review

“…The majority of those patients who had consulted with a pharmacist prescriber were highly satisfied with the consultation overall, particularly the pharmacist's competence and capability, considering their prescribing to be as effective and safe as their physician. They also gave positive feedback relating to the pharmacist's personality, knowledge and communication skills as well as the consistency, accessibility, length and outcome of the care received .…”

A cross-sectional evaluation of community pharmacists’ perceptions of intermediate care and medicines management across the healthcare interface

“…Whilst not widely implemented in IC, pharmacist prescribing has become an increasingly commonplace practice in both primary and secondary care settings [18, 19]. Notably, it has been shown that patients generally regard pharmacist prescribing as an acceptable alternative to medical prescribing [20, 21]. This study suggests that CPs are keen to expand their professional boundaries, however, it remains the case that the majority of those who have acquired prescribing qualifications are currently not using them, perhaps due to a lack of opportunities or lack of access to clinical information in the community pharmacy setting necessary to facilitate a prescribing role.…”

“…This finding reiterates that reported in the previous qualitative study [3], where it was described how CPs were not routinely informed when patients were admitted into hospital or IC. This issue is not unique to NI [21]. Irrespective of the setting, only a minority of CPs reported that they were informed of changes to patients’ medication regimens ‘ all of the time ’ at discharge.…”