front line pharmacist survey each director of pharmacy who received an invitation to participate in...

Front Line Pharmacist Survey

Each director of pharmacy who received an invitation to participate in the 2013/14 survey was asked to forward an email to their staff pharmacists, inviting them to participate in a survey of front-line pharmacists.

The email contained an explanation of the survey, along with a link to the front-line pharmacist survey.

Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Report2013/14

The survey captured demographic information related to:

the province in which the respondent was practising, the number of years in practice, the highest level of formal pharmacy education attained

No other personal information that might have inadvertently enabled identification of respondents was collected.

A total of 718 front-line pharmacists, representing every Canadian province, responded to the survey.

Front-Line Pharmacist Survey

Probability that the statement will reflect the reality in your hospital by 2019 (five years in the future)

• Strongly agree• Somewhat agree• Somewhat disagree• Strongly disagree

Response options

1. For each of the four response options

2. For the combined responses of :

Strongly agree and somewhat agree, that were combined to create an “agree” measure

Results reported:

By 2019, preference should be given to hiring pharmacists who have completed an accredited hospital pharmacy residency/M.Sc. program.

Strongly agree 43%Agree 37%

Combined agree 80%

69% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that a meaningful salary differential should be paid to those with a residency/M.Sc.

Example: Advanced training and credentialing

A Canadian specialty certification process, similar to the BPS program in the US, should be developed in Canada.


Combined agree 88%


I would seriously consider pursuing specialty certification, if the program was easily accessible and affordable.


Total agree 84%

Is it time to pursue credentialing for pharmacists with specialty training ?


“Assuming that the legal and regulatory issues have been adequately addressed, once a pharmacist has reviewed and released a prescription for processing, technicians and/or technology should be responsible for drug distribution activities (compounding, filling and checking the final product). “

Strongly agree 38% Somewhat agree 47% Combined agree 85%

Front-line pharmacists appear to be prepared to largely relinquish their role in the drug distribution system.

Roles and responsibilities of pharmacy staff

“Pharmacy practice expectations (an evidence-based prioritization of what each pharmacist is expected to focus their efforts on) should be in place within my facility for patients with similar conditions or needs (e.g. post myocardial infarction patients, patients receiving high-risk medications, etc).


Front-line pharmacists appear to be supportive of pharmacy practice expectations.


“Pharmacists should be expected to adhere to the established practice expectations, and be required to document and justify deviances from the established practice expectations, with the aim of reducing variability of care among patients with similar medical needs.”


Pharmacists appear to believe that there should be accountability for adherence to practice expectations, and documentation of the reasons for non-compliance.


“Pharmacists should be evaluated on a regular basis to insure that established practice expectations and documentation expectations are being met. ”



“Drug distribution services should be available 24 hours a day, either through on-site services, remote services provided through the use of information and automation technologies, or a contracted external provider (e.g. another hospital, etc.)


Over 25% of front-line pharmacists appear to believe that pharmacy-provided drug distribution services are not required on a 24 hour basis.


“Clinical services should be available 24 hours a day, either through on-site services, a remote service provided through the use of information and automation technologies, or a contracted external provider (e.g. another hospital, etc.)


Over 60% of front-line pharmacists appear to believe that pharmacy-provided clinical services are not required on a 24 hour basis.


“I am willing to rotate through a reasonable and equitable schedule of evening, night and weekend shifts to insure that patients receive the pharmacy services (distributive and clinical) which are required to optimize, on a 24 hour a day basis, the drug therapy outcomes of the patients in my hospital. Strongly agree 9% Somewhat agree 39% Combined agree 48%

The majority of front-line pharmacists do not appear to be willing to work a shift schedule that would provide 24x7 on-site pharmacy services


Adequate space and equipment (e.g., computer access) to facilitate experiential education

Viewed as being helpful or extremely helpful by 84% of front-line pharmacist respondents.

Funding to provide backfill for preceptors who are providing experiential education Viewed as being very or extremely helpful by 84%

of front-line pharmacist respondents

Strategies for enhancing Experiential training capacity

The existence of a list of patient care activities, approved by your province's pharmacy regulatory authority and/or your hospital's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (as required in your province) which pharmacy students could carry out with minimal supervision at different stages of their education (e.g. collecting chart data in year one of their program, interviewing patients in year two of their program, preparing medication reconciliation documents in year 3 of their program, communicating the results of a medication reconciliation to a physician in year 4 of their program, etc.).

Viewed as being very or extremely helpful by 70% of front-line pharmacist respondents


An experiential training model in which students are active participants in the delivery of essential patient care services at your hospital, to the extent that if the students were not there, additional pharmacist staff would have to be hired to perform those essential services.

Viewed as being very or extremely helpful by only 49% of front-line pharmacist respondents


How will you use this data?

Typical response rates for many of the statements:

Very likely: 15% to 25% Somewhat likely: 20% to 50%Unlikely: 15% to 30%Very unlikely: 5% to 15%

Results and comments

“By 2019, at least 75% of your pharmacists will function in a clinical practice-centred model, defined as one in which pharmacists function largely in clinical roles, with less than 20% of their time spent performing distributive activities (e.g product preparation, order-verification, checking the distributive work of other pharmacists and technicians, etc.)”

Very likely 44% Somewhat likely 39% Combined “Likely” 83%

Note: In 2013/14 report, the average percentage of pharmacists practicing in a clinical practice centred model was only 19%. This was actually a drop from the results in 2011/12 2here 20% of pharmacists were re reported to be practicing in a clinical practice centred model. Can that gap be closed? How?

Pharmacy Practice Model Domain Example:

How will you use this information?

Future Trends

front line pharmacist survey each director of pharmacy who received an invitation to participate in...

Documents

specialty training

advanced training

staff pharmacists

combined agree88

combined agree80

combined responses

combined agree85

combined agree96