TY - JOUR
T1 - Pharmacists working in residential aged care
T2 - a survey of pharmacist interest and perceived preparedness
AU - Cross, Amanda J.
AU - Hawthorne, Deborah
AU - Kouladjian O’Donnell, Lisa
AU - Lee, Kenneth
AU - Page, Amy Theresa
N1 - Funding Information:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. AJC is supported by an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 1 grant (APP2009633). LKO is supported by the Rothwell Fellowship in Geriatric Pharmacotherapy and Penney Ageing Research Unit. AP was supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (APP1156892) and now supported by the Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund/Western Australian Department of Health, Grant ID WANMA/EL2022/1.
Funding Information:
All authors are practicing consultant pharmacists. AJC has received grant funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (GA187306). ATP has professional leadership roles with the Pharmacy Board of Australia, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s Victorian Branch Committee and Society of Hospital Pharmacy Australia’s Research Leadership Group. The authors are the inaugural members of the COnsultant pHarmacists’ sErvices REsearch NeTwork (COHERENT).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024, The Author(s).
PY - 2024/2/5
Y1 - 2024/2/5
N2 - Background: Pharmacists involvement in residential aged care facilities has traditionally been limited to that of an external contractor providing medication reviews, or medication supply. Aim: To explore Australian pharmacists’ interest and perceived preparedness to work as on-site pharmacists in residential aged care. Method: National cross-sectional anonymous online survey open for two weeks (September 17th to October 1st 2022) consisting of Likert-type, multiple choice and multiple selection questions. Australian pharmacists were recruited using a broad advertising strategy which included social and traditional media platforms, and snowball sampling. Data were collected on pharmacist self-reported interest and perceived preparedness to work as on-site aged care pharmacists in residential aged care. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: Responses were received from 720 participants, 643 were eligible. Most participants were female (n = 466, 73%) and mean (SD) age was 43.5 (SD 12.5) years. Over half the participants were interested or extremely interested in working as an on-site aged care pharmacist (56%, n = 360), and agreed or strongly agreed (n = 475, 76%) that they felt prepared to work as an on-site aged care pharmacist. Most pharmacists felt prepared to engage in a variety of roles within the facilities (> 73% for each role), including resident and system level roles, and the majority agreed they felt prepared to engage with stakeholders, including general practitioners (93%) and medical specialists (86%). Conclusion: Pharmacists reported they are interested and feel prepared to work as on-site aged care pharmacists. These findings will inform the roll-out of this new model of care to enhance multidisciplinary collaboration in residential aged care.
AB - Background: Pharmacists involvement in residential aged care facilities has traditionally been limited to that of an external contractor providing medication reviews, or medication supply. Aim: To explore Australian pharmacists’ interest and perceived preparedness to work as on-site pharmacists in residential aged care. Method: National cross-sectional anonymous online survey open for two weeks (September 17th to October 1st 2022) consisting of Likert-type, multiple choice and multiple selection questions. Australian pharmacists were recruited using a broad advertising strategy which included social and traditional media platforms, and snowball sampling. Data were collected on pharmacist self-reported interest and perceived preparedness to work as on-site aged care pharmacists in residential aged care. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: Responses were received from 720 participants, 643 were eligible. Most participants were female (n = 466, 73%) and mean (SD) age was 43.5 (SD 12.5) years. Over half the participants were interested or extremely interested in working as an on-site aged care pharmacist (56%, n = 360), and agreed or strongly agreed (n = 475, 76%) that they felt prepared to work as an on-site aged care pharmacist. Most pharmacists felt prepared to engage in a variety of roles within the facilities (> 73% for each role), including resident and system level roles, and the majority agreed they felt prepared to engage with stakeholders, including general practitioners (93%) and medical specialists (86%). Conclusion: Pharmacists reported they are interested and feel prepared to work as on-site aged care pharmacists. These findings will inform the roll-out of this new model of care to enhance multidisciplinary collaboration in residential aged care.
KW - Aged
KW - Employment
KW - Homes for the Aged
KW - Inappropriate prescribing
KW - Medication therapy management
KW - Pharmacists
KW - Surveys and Questionnaires
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184260801&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11096-023-01686-7
DO - 10.1007/s11096-023-01686-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85184260801
SN - 2210-7703
VL - 46
SP - 506
EP - 514
JO - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
JF - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
IS - 2
ER -