TY - JOUR
T1 - Preferences of community pharmacists for extended roles in primary care
T2 - a survey and discrete choice experiment
AU - Scott, Anthony
AU - Bond, Christine
AU - Inch, Jackie
AU - Grant, Aileen
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council (SPGC) Research Trust. The research was conducted whilst Anthony Scott was at the Health Economics Research Unit (HERN). HERN is funded by the Chief Scientists Office of the Scottish Executive Health Department. The authors thank Verity Watson for assistance with the design of the experiment and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. The views in this paper are those of the authors and not the SPGC or the Scottish Executive. Christine Bond has received two separate unrestricted research grants from the SPGC. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Background: Major changes in the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists across the world are occurring. A new Scottish Community Pharmacy contract was introduced in April 2006, following the introduction of a similar contract in England in 2005. This contract encourages greater involvement in medicines management and other clinical cognitive roles, whilst retaining a supply function. Objective: To use a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine the strength of preference of community pharmacists for existing and potential new roles, prior to the introduction of the new contract. Study design: The DCE was a component of a larger questionnaire, which assessed demography, workload, attitudes to, and satisfaction with, proposed new roles, and current levels of activity. Attributes and levels for the DCE were based on the recent policy document for Scotland, The Right Medicine, and informed consensus, respectively. Scenarios were organised into pairs, and pharmacists were asked "Which job would you prefer?" The questionnaire was mailed to all pharmacists working in the community setting in Scotland (n = 1621), as identified from a telephone survey. The questionnaire was totally anonymous, and two reminders were sent. Results: There was an overall response rate of 56.4% (914/1621). Community pharmacists preferred to work in an extended pharmacy team, to have strong integration with secondary care, and to provide a minor illness advice service. In 2003, they would forgo an annual income of £3443, £2183 and £2798, respectively to achieve this. However, overall, the pharmacists preferred more income to less. Repeat dispensing, chronic disease management, offering health promotion services, and the number of prescriptions dispensed per month were not significant predictors of job choice. Conclusion: Community pharmacists placed the highest value on organisational aspects of their work, and having a first contact primary care role. Although total income was important, there were indications that they would be prepared to forgo income to attain their preferred job.
AB - Background: Major changes in the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists across the world are occurring. A new Scottish Community Pharmacy contract was introduced in April 2006, following the introduction of a similar contract in England in 2005. This contract encourages greater involvement in medicines management and other clinical cognitive roles, whilst retaining a supply function. Objective: To use a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine the strength of preference of community pharmacists for existing and potential new roles, prior to the introduction of the new contract. Study design: The DCE was a component of a larger questionnaire, which assessed demography, workload, attitudes to, and satisfaction with, proposed new roles, and current levels of activity. Attributes and levels for the DCE were based on the recent policy document for Scotland, The Right Medicine, and informed consensus, respectively. Scenarios were organised into pairs, and pharmacists were asked "Which job would you prefer?" The questionnaire was mailed to all pharmacists working in the community setting in Scotland (n = 1621), as identified from a telephone survey. The questionnaire was totally anonymous, and two reminders were sent. Results: There was an overall response rate of 56.4% (914/1621). Community pharmacists preferred to work in an extended pharmacy team, to have strong integration with secondary care, and to provide a minor illness advice service. In 2003, they would forgo an annual income of £3443, £2183 and £2798, respectively to achieve this. However, overall, the pharmacists preferred more income to less. Repeat dispensing, chronic disease management, offering health promotion services, and the number of prescriptions dispensed per month were not significant predictors of job choice. Conclusion: Community pharmacists placed the highest value on organisational aspects of their work, and having a first contact primary care role. Although total income was important, there were indications that they would be prepared to forgo income to attain their preferred job.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34748925237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2165/00019053-200725090-00006
DO - 10.2165/00019053-200725090-00006
M3 - Article
C2 - 17803336
AN - SCOPUS:34748925237
SN - 1170-7690
VL - 25
SP - 783
EP - 792
JO - PharmacoEconomics
JF - PharmacoEconomics
IS - 9
ER -
