The caring behaviours of Danish pharmaconomists: insight for pharmacy technician practice around the world

Pharmacy workforce support personnel are being accorded greater scopes of practice, especially Danish pharmaconomists [pharmacy technician, experts in pharmaceuticals with a 3-year degree]. The aims of this study were to assess pharmaconomists' caring behaviours and identify factors related to those behaviours.

A self-administered survey was distributed to a random sample of pharmaconomists in Denmark. The survey assessed caring behaviours using the Caring Behaviours Assessment and acquired data to ascertain their employers' culture, respondent's need for achievement, personality traits, commitment and work-related characteristics. Descriptive statistics provided insight into pharmacomomists' predispositions, and bivariate analyses were used to identify associations of pharmaconomists' caring with other variables under study.

Over 300 pharmaconomists responded (52.2% response rate). Pharmaconomists reported generally high levels (well above the median on the 5-point scale) of caring behaviours. They reported higher levels (upper range of 5-point scale) of empathic behaviours, such as treating patients with respect and seeing things from the patient's point of view but somewhat lower levels of encouraging the patient to talk about how they feel and praising the patient's efforts, which could otherwise help patients cope with and improve their self-efficacy for disease management. Pharmaconomist caring was associated with practice setting, organisational culture and commitment to their employer.

Pharmaconomists reported performing behaviours that were empathic, but less frequently those associated with facilitating greater patient autonomy. Caring behaviours were associated with a number of variables related to practice setting. The findings can help to inform educational pedagogy and pharmacy personnel management.