Years in Practice, Differences in Perspectives: Survey Findings From Age-Friendly Pharmacists

Early adoption of innovation is important for the implementation of evidence-based practices. Care of older adults using Age-Friendly practices optimizes the What Matters, Medication, Mobility, and Mentation (4Ms) framework. Within the first year of availability, over 1900 individuals acquired Age-Friendly pharmacist recognition. The purpose of this study is to characterize the demographics, preparedness, motivation, and professional association affiliation of pharmacists who received Age-Friendly recognition.

A quantitative survey was administered to all participants as the last of four steps in Age-Friendly pharmacist recognition. The target population was Age-Friendly pharmacists who self-administer the online questionnaire. New practitioners (within 6 years of graduation) and pharmacists with 6+ (6+) years of practice were compared using descriptive statistics.

Between March 2025 and February 2026, 1953 individuals received Age-Friendly Pharmacist recognition, 285 (15.4% of cohort) of whom were new practitioners with a mean age of 29.7 ± 4.4 years and 74.4% female. The 6+ group comprised 1567 (84.6% of cohort) pharmacists, mean age 45.3 ± 9.1 years, and 74.6% female. One quarter of new practitioners and 57.4% of the 6+ group were board-certified. Of those who were board-certified, 34% of new practitioners were board-certified in geriatrics and pharmacotherapy, whereas geriatrics certification was prevalent (82.2%) in the 6+ group. Improving the quality of care was the primary motivation to seek Age-Friendly recognition for both groups, followed by free continuing education, a digital badge, and advancing their skill set. New practitioners learned about Age-Friendly recognition from employers (46.7%), peers (39.1%), and social media (18.6%), whereas the 6+ group learned about Age-Friendly on the ASCP website (43.3%). For both groups, employers played an important role in disseminating information about and in supporting pharmacists to achieve Age-Friendly recognition.

Highly qualified pharmacists were motivated to seek Age-Friendly recognition by a desire to improve the quality of care for older adults, free continuing education, a digital badge, and to advance their skill set.