AIM: This study aimed to identify the range of clinical pharmacy activities in ambulatory care, assess the suitability of the existing ward-based tool for capturing these activities, and recommend modifications.
METHOD: Non-participant direct observations were conducted to record pharmacists' clinical activities in ambulatory clinics and multidisciplinary meetings. These observations were compared to the existing ward-based tool to identify discrepancies. Semi-structured interviews with eight ambulatory pharmacists were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed inductively to explore the tool's representativeness of their routine clinical activities.
RESULTS: Twenty-nine clinical pharmacy activities were observed in ambulatory services. Only fifteen were captured by the existing tool, with therapy monitoring and recommending therapeutic changes not accurately captured. Pharmacists agreed that the tool was not fully representative and included irrelevant activities. Four common uncaptured activities were multidisciplinary meeting-specific activities, arranging laboratory tests, monitoring patient outcomes, and liaising with community healthcare professionals. This study identified 33 candidate ambulatory clinical pharmacy activities.
CONCLUSION: The existing ward-based tool does not fully capture the full range of ambulatory care clinical pharmacy activities, highlighting the need for an improved tool. Pharmacists recommended including the uncaptured activities. The candidate activities provide a foundation for standardised measurement of relevant ambulatory care activities to enable effective workforce deployment and improve patient outcomes.
OBJECTIVE: To explore information on pharmacists' roles in a variety of settings related to 1) IDA management; 2) education and training needed to support the roles; and 3) barriers and enablers to expanding or developing the roles.
METHODS: This study involved a literature review and a focus group discussion with twelve participants selected purposively and nominated by national professional leadership bodies across five countries. A literature search was conducted using PubMed Database. A focus group discussion explored pharmacists' roles, education and training needs, as well as barriers and enablers to support their roles in anaemia management, specifically in IDA. A codebook thematic analysis approach was conducted according to the study objectives.
RESULTS: Sixteen articles were included in the analysis. The pharmacists' roles in anaemia identified from literature ranged from patient management and monitoring, collaboration with other healthcare professionals and involvement in guideline development, in which the roles vary according to the workplace. Twelve participants attended the focus group discussion. Participants highlighted pharmacists' roles in screening and detection, medication therapeutic management, patient counselling and patient monitoring. Participants emphasised a need for guidelines or toolkits with subsequent training or workshops to support their competency development in anaemia. Monitoring the success of pharmacist delivered anaemia programmes was recommended to support advocating for active pharmacist roles.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacists have a growing opportunity to contribute to achieving the global targets on anaemia through their involvement in screening and managing anaemia and increasing anaemia awareness among the patients and community.