Multidisciplinary members' perspectives on a pharmacist joining a rheumatology practice team

Pharmacist participation in chronic disease management benefits patients in many ambulatory settings. We explored the attitudes and perceptions among multidisciplinary members of a rheumatology team towards the skills and responsibilities of a pharmacist joining their practice.

The physicians, nurse, physiotherapist and staff of a rheumatology clinic were invited to participate in focus group and semistructured interviews. Practice members also completed an inventory of perceived health professional roles in the medication use process.

Discussions with 2 physicians, a nurse, physiotherapist and 1 office administrator were conducted. Concepts related to 3 key themes included positively viewed pharmacist roles broadly related to activities that encompass provision of medication-related services for the patients, the providers and the practice. Examples of such care included educational tasks related to therapies (rheumatological and otherwise) and maintenance of accurate drug histories. These findings were reflected in high scores for perceived pharmacist roles in education and medication review responsibilities using the Medication Use Processes Matrix instrument. Most members were not comfortable with pharmacists conducting physical assessments and emphasized the need for a team member who could adapt to variations in workflow preferences across rheumatologists in the practice.

Perceived pharmacist roles expressed by existing rheumatology team members were largely consistent with the scope of pharmacist knowledge, skills and responsibilities in primary care.

Overall, existing multidisciplinary staff exhibited favourable attitudes towards a pharmacist joining their practice setting. Data from this job analysis exercise were used to inform the development of a job description for a rheumatology clinical pharmacist.