1. Results of a focus group and questionnaire.
How can community pharmacists deliver pharmaceutical care to patients with cancer?
Results of a focus group and questionnaire.
Fiona MacLean1, Alexander Mullen2, Richard Lowrie1 and Anne Boyter2 1NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde; 2University of Strathclyde
Results – focus group
Five community pharmacists participated in the focus group
Data were analysed using content analysis
Data were coded as:
Challenges
IT not joined up
No single patient record
Context, values and beliefs
Scared to make decisions
Wanting to provide the best care
Solutions
Access to clinical information systems
One single patient record
The pharmacists were asked how clinical data would help them support patients better:
Putting research into practice
Formal e-referral pathways from hospital to GP practice pharmacists have been requested in NHSGGC
e-cancer care plans will be used by NHSGGC GP practice pharmacists to record their interventions enabling 2-way communication
Clinical vignettes describing simple toxicity management are being written by cancer care pharmacists for the NHSGGC Community Pharmacy e-bulletin. The first was management of dry eye.
Scottish cancer care pharmacists are leading the development of pharmaceutical care bundles to support tiered pharmaceutical care delivered by community pharmacists to patients prescribed SACT.
Introduction
Innovative models of SACT delivery now involve community pharmacists who require support to deliver specialist pharmaceutical care to their patients. The education and training needs of community pharmacists should be identified and cancer care pharmacists should seek ways to provide clinical support and clinical information to community-based colleagues.
Aim
To identify availability of patients’ clinical information, preferred methods of receiving information and training needs of community pharmacists and,
To explore current and future uptake of e-health technologies to support delivery of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists to patients with cancer
Method
An electronic questionnaire with 19 questions was ed by Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) to their members in January 2016
Data were analysed using Qualtrics® software
A focus group of community pharmacists who are part of the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) palliative care network took place in February 2015
Data were analysed using Audacity® and Microsoft NVivo®
Results - questionnaire
CPS ed the questionnaire to 1800 members; 46 questionnaires were returned. Years qualified ranged from yrs.
No pharmacists received clinical information about patients from secondary care
Preferred methods of communication about patients are NHS or direct access to the hospital electronic record
Four pharmacists (11%) felt confident in providing pharmaceutical care to patients prescribed SACT
Pharmacists wanted basic training on SACT
Figure 3: Word Cloud “how access to clinical data might benefit my patients”
No confidence
Limited cancer knowledge
Doesn’t know patient has cancer
Confidence
Access to clinical systems
Knowledge of SACT
Knowledge of the patient
Common side effects
Drug interactions
Contact details
Conclusion
Suitably trained community pharmacists are ideally placed to support patients prescribed SACT
Community pharmacists in Scotland will be supported to deliver directed pharmaceutical care to patients prescribed oral SACT dispensed in the community
e-health technologies using e-referral and e-care plans will facilitate the seamless transition of pharmaceutical care of patients with cancer across the interface
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jackie Lewis for her input to the questionnaire; Community Pharmacy Scotland & NHSGGC for distributing the questionnaire; & the focus group participants.
Figure 1: Reasons for lack of confidence Figure 2: Training needs