Using focus groups to inform pharmacy research

General public's views on pharmacy public health services: current situation and opportunities in the future

“…the general public, rather than that of researchers. 38 However, we acknowledge there was insufficient participation from younger respondents and people from lower SES, who may have had different views.…”

Consumer perspectives of the Australian Home Medicines Review Program: Benefits and barriers

“…It has been shown that focus groups offer researchers a powerful investigative potential especially in the areas of consumer behavior, patient-provider collaboration, health literacy research, and disease and medication management. 13 Specifically, the group discussion format can stimulate the exchange of ideas, assist participants to refine their individual viewpoints by comparing them to other people's opinions, help participants develop their thoughts and beliefs, and stimulate the articulation of attitudes. Moreover, focus groups can provide a protecting place that gives participants a sense of community, which makes them more comfortable in expressing their opinions.…”

“…Participants are more likely to bring up and discuss concerns and negative thoughts in focus groups than in other data collection methods. 13 Moderated by HMR-pharmacist researchers who were experienced in qualitative research, the semi structured focus group sessions were opened by a brief statement of the purpose of the focus group and an invitation to discuss how respondents obtain their medications, what kind of medicine problems they tend to experience and how they manage these. The relationships of the participating patients and carers to their pharmacists and GPs were then explored.…”

Reflections on the role of the pharmacy regulatory authority in enhancing quality related event reporting in community pharmacies

“…According to Huston and Hobson, "at their most basic form, focus groups are structured or semi-structured meetings with a small group of individuals (i.e., "informants" or "participants") that allow for the exchange of information, opinion, and feedback related to a single topic." 3 There are a number of advantages of focus groups when compared to individual interviews, including: (1) participants are provided with a "safe place" to discuss topics, as they can choose the extent they want to provide input on specific questions; (2) the sense of community that focus groups offer may increase participants willingness to discuss sensitive topics; (3) participants can "feed-off" the ideas of one another, allowing participants to remember situations that they may not have otherwise recalled; (4) participants are in a better position to frame their views, by comparing or contrasting them to those of others; and (5) common issues are more likely to be discussed the most during focus groups, and these issues will appear to be the most important. [3][4][5][6] In recent years, focus groups have been used to explore a wide variety of important community pharmacy issues, such as healthcare quality, health service utilization, prescription intervention practices, and e-prescribing.…”

“…3 There are a number of advantages of focus groups when compared to individual interviews, including: (1) participants are provided with a "safe place" to discuss topics, as they can choose the extent they want to provide input on specific questions; (2) the sense of community that focus groups offer may increase participants willingness to discuss sensitive topics; (3) participants can "feed-off" the ideas of one another, allowing participants to remember situations that they may not have otherwise recalled; (4) participants are in a better position to frame their views, by comparing or contrasting them to those of others; and (5) common issues are more likely to be discussed the most during focus groups, and these issues will appear to be the most important. [3][4][5][6] In recent years, focus groups have been used to explore a wide variety of important community pharmacy issues, such as healthcare quality, health service utilization, prescription intervention practices, and e-prescribing. [7][8][9][10] As a result, a purposive case sampling approach was used in order to capture the full range of PRA approaches to addressing QRErelated issues in community pharmacies, including PRAs that currently have regulations in place and those that do not.…”