Iqbal Ayesha, Rutter Victoria, Gülpınar Gizem, Halai Manjula, Awele Briella, Elshenawy Rasha Abdelsalam, Anderson Claire, Hussain Rabia, Chan Amy Hai Yan
Commonwealth Pharmacist Association, London, UK.
Division of Pharmacy Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
J Pharm Policy Pract. 2021 Dec 27;14(1):112. doi: 10.1186/s40545-021-00396-7.
The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) is a charity representing pharmacists across the Commonwealth, with the vision of empowering and collaboratively develop the profession and fully utilise the potential of pharmacists to strengthen health systems through supporting better access to, quality and use of medicines and related services. Commonwealth comprises predominantly of low- and middle-income countries, where limited data often exists in pharmacy practice. There is a recognised need across the Commonwealth to focus on developing, implementing and fully utilising pharmacy professional services to progress universal health coverage and achieve the sustainable development goals, particularly in low and middle-income countries; however, currently a knowledge gap exists in understanding the national priorities in Commonwealth nations. CPA is ideally positioned to access to these nations. The aim of this study was thus to explore the priorities and focus areas of NPAs across the Commonwealth and create evidence for a needs-based approach to inform the support that the Commonwealth pharmacists association can collaboratively and strategically provide to its members to progress towards shared goals.
Data were collected virtually on Zoom by conducting interviews using a semi-structured interview guide developed for this study with CPA councillors representing NPAs or their equivalents if no official body existed. An inductive, reflexive, thematic analysis was performed for data analysis.
In total, 30 councillors were interviewed from 30 low- and medium-income countries. The three main overarching priority areas identified across respective Commonwealth nations developing extended pharmacy services, improving pharmacy education, and developing and redefining the role of NPAs.
This novel study highlights the collective priorities for the pharmacy profession across the low and middle-income countries of the Commonwealth and the urgent need for supporting NPAs around the three identified overarching priority areas. The mapped-out priorities will inform an evidence-based approach for the CPA to better support NPAs in their mission through advocacy and practitioner development, to fully harness pharmacists' unique skill set and maximise their contribution to progressing universal health coverage.
英联邦药剂师协会（CPA）是一个代表英联邦各地药剂师的慈善机构，其愿景是赋能并协同发展该行业，充分发挥药剂师的潜力，通过支持更好地获取、提高药品及相关服务的质量和使用，来加强卫生系统。英联邦主要由低收入和中等收入国家组成，这些国家的药学实践数据往往有限。英联邦各国普遍认识到，需要专注于发展、实施和充分利用药学专业服务，以推进全民健康覆盖并实现可持续发展目标，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家；然而，目前在了解英联邦国家的国家优先事项方面存在知识差距。CPA处于接触这些国家的理想位置。因此，本研究的目的是探索英联邦各地国家药剂师协会（NPAs）的优先事项和重点领域，并为基于需求的方法提供证据，以指导英联邦药剂师协会能够协同并战略性地为其成员提供支持，以朝着共同目标前进。
通过使用为本研究开发并在Zoom上进行访谈来收集数据，访谈采用半结构化访谈指南，访谈对象为代表NPAs的CPA议员，如果没有官方机构，则为其同等人员。对数据分析采用归纳、反思性主题分析。
总共对来自30个低收入和中等收入国家的30名议员进行了访谈。在各个英联邦国家确定的三个主要总体优先领域是：发展扩展药学服务、改善药学教育以及发展和重新定义NPAs的作用。
这项新颖的研究突出了英联邦低收入和中等收入国家药学专业的共同优先事项，以及围绕三个确定的总体优先领域支持NPAs的迫切需求。规划出的优先事项将为CPA提供一种基于证据的方法，以通过宣传和从业者发展更好地支持NPAs实现其使命，充分利用药剂师的独特技能组合，并最大限度地提高他们对推进全民健康覆盖的贡献。
