Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP
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Res Social Adm Pharm · Nov 2015
Evaluation of instruments to assess health literacy in Arabic language among Iraqis.
Low health literacy is associated with lack of medical information, less use of preventive measures, low medication adherence rates, high health care costs and high risk of hospitalization. ⋯ SILS has one subjective, possibly culturally biased question. Since Iraqis are generally not exposed to reading product labels, the NVS test might be not an accurate measure for them. S-TOFHLA was the most comprehensive test and gave equitable results. The Arabic version of S-TOFHLA can be used to measure health literacy in 22 Arabic speaking countries.
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Res Social Adm Pharm · Nov 2015
Factors influencing the provision of adherence support by community pharmacists: A structural equation modeling approach.
Non-adherence to medication represents an important barrier to achieving optimum patient outcomes. Community pharmacists are well placed to deliver interventions to support adherence. ⋯ Provision of adherence support by pharmacists was episodic and infrequent, impeded by a number of barriers. By addressing barriers, it is possible to enable pharmacists to become more proactive and effective in supporting patient adherence.
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Res Social Adm Pharm · Nov 2015
A qualitative study exploring community pharmacists' awareness of, and contribution to, self-care support in the management of long-term conditions in the United Kingdom.
Self-care support refers to activities aimed at educating, training and empowering patients with skills and ability to manage [and monitor] their long-term conditions (LTCs). While self-care support by health care professionals has emerged as a distinct concept in the management of LTCs, evidence of community pharmacy's contribution is sparse. ⋯ Community pharmacists' theoretical understanding of self-care was not reflected in the ways that they portrayed their contributions to self-care support. The current ways in which community pharmacy delivers its services for patient care may need to be re-configured in order to fit into the holistic self-care support paradigm.
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Res Social Adm Pharm · Nov 2015
Could it be done safely? Pharmacists views on safety and clinical outcomes from the introduction of an advanced role for technicians.
There is ample evidence that pharmacists' interventions in patient care improve patient outcomes; however, community pharmacists do not necessarily have the time available to undertake these roles. One way to address this problem is to enable technicians to take on a greater role in the mechanical aspects of the dispensing process. ⋯ The pharmacists were of the opinion that the separation of clinical from mechanical parts of the dispensing process would increase the time available to spend interacting with patients. Coupled with more time dedicated to a clinical assessment of prescriptions they could appreciate this would improve clinical outcomes for the patients. Clear and stringent guidelines and standard operating procedures were proposed to ensure that safety standards do not change.
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Res Social Adm Pharm · Nov 2015
A review of countries' pharmacist-patient communication legal requirements on prescription medications and alignment with practice: Comparison of Nordic countries.
Pharmacist-patient communication around prescription medications can optimize treatment outcomes. Society's expectations of pharmacist-patient communication around medications can be expressed in legislation, economic incentives, and authority control. In this study, the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden provide the legislative examples and can be used as a platform to discuss how society's expectations, professional visions, and practice are aligning. ⋯ Various countries throughout the world differ in their requirements for pharmacy staff to communicate on the use of medicines during dispensing. The Nordic countries all require such communication, which aligns with professional visions. Regardless of the pharmacy system, the states let the employer and pharmacy professions carry out it in practice with apparently little state involvement, thus showing trust in the profession and employers. However, since Nordic communication studies show deviation from the legislation, there are reasons to reevaluate and discuss the legislation, the economic incentives and the control system.