TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving access to quality contraceptive counselling in community pharmacy
T2 - examining the knowledge, attitudes and practices of community pharmacists in Australia
AU - Buckingham, Pip Louise Maria
AU - Hussainy, Safeera
AU - Soon, Judith
AU - Norman, Wendy V.
AU - Bateson, Deborah
AU - Mazza, Danielle
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant number 1143492 (Centre for Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care (SPHERE)), and the Australian Government Research Training Program. WVN holds the Canadian Institutes for Health Research-Public Health Agency of Canada Applied Public Health Chair in Family Planning Research CPP-329455-107837 2014-2024).
Funding Information:
DM has received research funding, travel grants and honorarium from Bayer. The other authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: Across most of Australia, the role of community pharmacists in contraceptive care has been unchanged since 2004. To understand their current scope of practice and potential for practice advancements, we examined community pharmacists' contraceptive knowledge and their attitudes, practices and perceived barriers to and benefits of contraceptive counselling provision. Methods: A nationwide postal survey was conducted between September and December 2020. We contacted a state/territory-stratified sample of 2149 community pharmacies and limited eligibility to one pharmacist per pharmacy. Summary statistics of respondent characteristics and parametric (χ2, linear regression) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney, logistic regression) tests were computed for the outcomes: practices, knowledge (reported and tested), confidence, attitudes, barriers and benefits. Results: Eligible responses were received from 366 pharmacies (19%). Pharmacists' median age was 34. Most (85% of) pharmacists agreed that contraceptive counselling fits within their current professional activities and emphasised benefits to their patients, including improved access to contraceptive decision support (80%), as being key motivators of counselling. A lack of payment mechanisms (66%), training opportunities (55%) and technical assistance tools (54%) were the most important barriers. Self-rated knowledge and confidence were highest for combined oral contraceptive pills and lowest for the copper intrauterine device (IUD). When tested, pharmacists were very knowledgeable about method, dosage, frequencies and costs, and relatively less knowledgeable about side-effects and IUD suitability for adolescents. Conclusions: Community pharmacists provide contraceptive information and counselling but lack the necessary resources and support to be able to consistently provide quality, person-centred care. Remuneration mechanisms, training opportunities and pharmacy-specific professional resources need to be explored.
AB - Background: Across most of Australia, the role of community pharmacists in contraceptive care has been unchanged since 2004. To understand their current scope of practice and potential for practice advancements, we examined community pharmacists' contraceptive knowledge and their attitudes, practices and perceived barriers to and benefits of contraceptive counselling provision. Methods: A nationwide postal survey was conducted between September and December 2020. We contacted a state/territory-stratified sample of 2149 community pharmacies and limited eligibility to one pharmacist per pharmacy. Summary statistics of respondent characteristics and parametric (χ2, linear regression) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney, logistic regression) tests were computed for the outcomes: practices, knowledge (reported and tested), confidence, attitudes, barriers and benefits. Results: Eligible responses were received from 366 pharmacies (19%). Pharmacists' median age was 34. Most (85% of) pharmacists agreed that contraceptive counselling fits within their current professional activities and emphasised benefits to their patients, including improved access to contraceptive decision support (80%), as being key motivators of counselling. A lack of payment mechanisms (66%), training opportunities (55%) and technical assistance tools (54%) were the most important barriers. Self-rated knowledge and confidence were highest for combined oral contraceptive pills and lowest for the copper intrauterine device (IUD). When tested, pharmacists were very knowledgeable about method, dosage, frequencies and costs, and relatively less knowledgeable about side-effects and IUD suitability for adolescents. Conclusions: Community pharmacists provide contraceptive information and counselling but lack the necessary resources and support to be able to consistently provide quality, person-centred care. Remuneration mechanisms, training opportunities and pharmacy-specific professional resources need to be explored.
KW - Contraceptive Agents, Female
KW - Contraceptive Devices, Female
KW - Counseling
KW - Health Services Research
KW - Patient Education as Topic
KW - Pharmaceutical Services
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144917028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjsrh-2022-201623
DO - 10.1136/bmjsrh-2022-201623
M3 - Article
C2 - 36410765
AN - SCOPUS:85144917028
JO - BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health
JF - BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health
SN - 2515-1991
ER -