‘It's showed me the skills that he has’: pharmacists' and mentors' views on pharmacist supplementary prescribing

Abstract

Supplementary prescribing has been successful where it has been implemented but a number of barriers remain which are preventing the wider acceptance of this practice innovation.

Pharmacist prescribing in Northern Ireland: a quantitative assessment

“…In this present study most pharmacists 'disagreed' or 'strongly disagreed' that pharmacist prescribing increased responsibility and accountability of a pharmacist prescriber in a negative way; this suggests that pharmacists may be confident in their abilities and eager to take on the extra responsibility associated with prescribing. This appears to support findings by Lloyd et al [13] where it was reported that pharmacists felt a greater level of responsibility and accountability but welcomed and accepted this as part of their professional progression, and there was greater recognition of their role in the health care team [13]. Pharmacists already have experience in many aspects of clinical ''This is an evolving role largely dependent on access to patient records if it is to progress but need also to continue to build relationships with medical practitioners'' (CP, primary care)…”

“…Over 80% of pharmacists 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that prescribing increased continuity of care and increased patient compliance/adherence. This has been found previously in studies of non-medical prescribing [8,13,16]. In this present study most pharmacists 'disagreed' or 'strongly disagreed' that pharmacist prescribing increased responsibility and accountability of a pharmacist prescriber in a negative way; this suggests that pharmacists may be confident in their abilities and eager to take on the extra responsibility associated with prescribing.…”

“…This approach allowed the identification of other qualified pharmacist prescribers who may not have trained via NICPLD, but who now worked as a pharmacist prescriber in NI. Three versions of a structured self-administered questionnaire were developed by referring to previous qualitative findings [12,13], and other relevant literature to accommodate the current status of prescribing pharmacists: i.e. those currently prescribing; those who had prescribed in the past but who are not currently prescribing, and those who were qualified as prescribers but had never prescribed.…”

Piloting the United Kingdom ‘Prescribing Safety Assessment’ with pharmacist prescribers in Scotland

“…While a number of studies on UK pharmacist prescribing have researched aspects such as the experiences of patients, the general public and other members of the healthcare team, generating very positive findings, [14][15][16][17][18][19] there has been little focus on any objective measures of prescribing safety. In one very small study in three hospitals in England, pharmacists prescribed 680 from 5274 items, noting an error rate of 0.3%.…”

Continued Dispensing: What medications do patients believe should be available?

“…(Hoti et al 2011a) Patients who experienced supplementary prescribing have shown their support for pharmacists to prescribe a variety of medications such as, but not limited to, medications to treat diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, skin, gastrointestinal, thyroid and blood coagulation diseases. (Lloyd et al 2010) Furthermore, pharmacist interventions with treatment of chronic diseases have been proven to be effective. (FikriBenbrahim et al 2013;George et al 2010;Smith et al 2010) Therefore, applying more responsibility to pharmacists through an expanded version of CD may assist in achieving CD's goals; i.e.…”