• Int J Pharm Pract · Jun 2013

    'Like doing a jigsaw with half the parts missing': community pharmacists and the management of cancer pain in the community.

    • Imogen Savage, Alison Blenkinsopp, S Jose Closs, and Michael I Bennett.
    • School of Pharmacy, University of London, London, UK.
    • Int J Pharm Pract. 2013 Jun 1;21(3):151-60.

    ObjectivesThe aim was to explore and describe community pharmacists' current and potential place in the cancer pain pathway. Objectives were to describe pharmacists' role in advising patients and their carers on optimum use of opioid drugs for pain relief, identify elements of medicines management that could be modified and identify opportunities for improved communication with patients and other professionals.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 community pharmacists in three areas of England. Data were analysed using the Framework method.Key FindingsPharmacists had no reliable method to identify patients with cancer and no access to disease stage and treatment plan information. There was little evidence of any routine communication with other professionals about patient care. Contact with patients was limited. Access to palliative care medicines could be problematic for patients and medicines use reviews (MURs) were rarely done. Interview data suggested variable levels of knowledge about optimal opioid use in cancer pain or awareness of patients' priorities. For some pharmacists, proactive involvement appeared to be inhibited by fear of discussing emotional and wider social aspects and accounts showed that a wide range of issues and concerns were raised by family members, indicating considerable unmet need. Pharmacists tended to assume information had already been provided by others and felt isolated from other care team members. Many felt that their potential contribution to cancer pain management was constrained but aspired to do more.ConclusionsThere is significant scope for improving access to and interaction with, community pharmacists by people with cancer pain and their families. Finding ways to embed pharmacists within palliative care teams could provide a starting point for a greater contribution to cancer pain management.© 2012 The Authors. IJPP © 2012 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,704,841 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.