Pharmacists' perceptions of their practice: a comparison between Alberta and Northern Ireland

To explore how community pharmacists from Alberta, Canada, and Northern Ireland, UK, describe what a pharmacist does and to compare their responses.

Two hundred community pharmacists were interviewed using the telephone. The interviewer who introduced himself as a researcher asked two questions about the period over which the participants had been practising pharmacy and the way they describe what a pharmacist does. Responses were categorised into three categories: patient-centred, product-focused and ambiguous. Word-cloud analysis was used to assess the use of patient-care-related terms.

Of the responses from community pharmacists in Alberta, 29% were categorised as patient-centred, 45% as product-focused and 26% as ambiguous. In Northern Ireland, 40% of the community pharmacists' responses were categorised as patient-centred, 39% as product-focused and 21% as ambiguous. Community pharmacists in Northern Ireland provided more patient-centred responses than community pharmacists in Alberta (P=0.013). The word-cloud analysis showed that 'medicine' and 'dispense' were the most frequently reported terms. It also highlighted a relative lack of patient-care-related terms.

The findings of the present study are suggestive of some movement towards patient-centredness; however, product-focused practice still predominates within the pharmacy profession in Alberta and Northern Ireland. The relative lack of patient-care-related terms suggests that patient care is still not the first priority for pharmacists in both Alberta and Northern Ireland.