Community pharmacists' knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards immunization in Quebec

To describe the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of Quebec's pharmacists towards immunization and determine their perceived barriers to pharmacist-led immunization.

The current study was a descriptive survey of pharmacists working in a community setting in Quebec. Pharmacists were randomly chosen from a list of Quebec's community pharmacies and were contacted by phone from January 17 to 25, 2013. Participating pharmacists were given a web link to the online questionnaire. An e-mail reminder was sent 5-7 days after the first contact.

A total of 201 community pharmacists were contacted during the study period, and 115 answered the survey, generating a 57% response rate. The vast majority of respondents answered that vaccines have more benefits than adverse effects. Approximately 52% answered that pharmacists should be able to prescribe and administer vaccines, pending a legislative change. These pharmacists were more interested in administering travel (92%), flu (88%) and pandemic (85%) vaccines than regularly scheduled vaccines for adults (65%) or children (18%). Leading barriers to pharmacist-led immunization were lack of time (90%) and training (92%), and the most common factors that would help its implementation were increased immunization training (95%) and adequate remuneration (92%).

These findings should push for a renewed discussion about the role of pharmacists as immunization agents in Canadian provinces where pharmacists do not have the right to administer vaccines.