Pharmacists’ perspectives on medication reviews for long-term care residents with advanced dementia: a qualitative study

The Roles and Responsibilities of Community Pharmacists Supporting Older People with Palliative Care Needs: A Rapid Review of the Literature

“…After removing duplicates, the title and abstract screening of 246 citations identified 28 potential papers for full text review. Eligibility assessment resulted in 14 papers [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ] meeting the inclusion criteria and being selected for final data extraction and synthesis.…”

“…Of the 14 included papers, seven were conducted in the United States of America (USA) [ 21 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], four in Australia [ 22 , 23 , 25 , 33 ], two in the United Kingdom (UK) [ 20 , 29 ], and one in Canada [ 24 ]. Six of the 14 papers [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 26 , 30 , 31 ] described pharmacists’ role predominantly for people receiving RAC services. Three papers [ 23 , 24 , 27 ] discussed pharmacists’ role in caring for older people receiving HC services.…”

“…Seven papers [ 20 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 32 , 33 ] were classified at the Level III evidence level. These included three papers [ 20 , 26 , 32 ] which systematically reviewed and synthesised best practice clinical interventions and four papers used observational qualitative research spanning across semi-structured interviews [ 22 , 23 ], focus groups [ 25 ], and surveys [ 33 ]. The remaining seven papers [ 21 , 24 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ] were classified at the Level V evidence level.…”

“…The clinical reviews were conducted in people receiving both HC and RAC services. These included individualised medicines management such as medication reconciliation [ 23 , 26 , 27 ], recommendation of changes to medication doses [ 22 , 30 ], identifying medication related problems, and ensuring safety and appropriateness of prescribed medications [ 28 , 31 , 32 ]. Other activities described within a clinical review involved deprescribing of medicines that were no longer required, including analgesia and sedatives [ 20 , 21 , 27 , 30 , 31 ].…”

“…A number of key barriers to providing pharmacist-led clinical reviews were identified including: inadequate remuneration [ 22 ]; involvement of multiple prescribers [ 23 ]; poor processes for information sharing between providers [ 23 ]; unrealistic family expectations [ 22 ]; and poor health literacy among the population [ 25 ].…”