School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Int J Pharm Pract. 2023 Sep 30;31(5):478-488. doi: 10.1093/ijpp/riad044.
Guidelines support best practice for healthcare practice. In Australia, some non-prescription medicines are only accessible after consultation with a pharmacist and are known as Pharmacist Only medicines. Guidelines for providing some Pharmacist Only medicines are available, however, it is currently unknown if and how these guidelines are used in practice.The objective was to characterise pharmacists', intern pharmacists and pharmacy students' use of guidelines for Pharmacist Only medicines.
A cross-sectional electronic survey of Australian registered pharmacists, intern pharmacists and pharmacy students was administered in July 2020. Questions explored the participants' use of Pharmacist Only medicine guidelines (available both in print and online; available online only) in the preceding 12 months. Data were analysed descriptively (i.e. frequencies, percentages).
In total, 574 eligible respondents completed the survey. Overall, 396 (69%) reported accessing the online and in-print guidelines in the previous 12 months with 185 (33%) accessing online-only guidelines. The guideline on emergency contraception was used the most out of all guidelines in the past 12 months (278, 48%). Overall, respondents reported accessing guidelines to update knowledge, check their practice reflected best practice and content familiarisation. Respondents' reasons for not accessing guidelines were due to respondents stating they did not need the information or that they had previously accessed the guidelines more than 12 months ago. These reasons varied between respondent groups.
Access and use of the Pharmacist Only medicines guidelines varied between pharmacists, interns and students. Further understanding of the influences of the use of these guidelines will help inform professional bodies on how best to develop guidelines to increase consistent use in practice and implement interventions to increase use.
指南支持医疗保健实践的最佳实践。在澳大利亚，一些非处方药在与药剂师咨询后才能获得，这些药物被称为药剂师专用药物。提供一些药剂师专用药物的指南已经存在，但是，目前尚不清楚这些指南在实践中是否以及如何使用。本研究的目的是描述药剂师、实习药剂师和药学学生使用药剂师专用药物指南的情况。
2020 年 7 月，对澳大利亚注册药剂师、实习药剂师和药学学生进行了横断面电子调查。问题探讨了参与者在过去 12 个月中使用药剂师专用药物指南（既有印刷版也有在线版；仅在线提供）的情况。数据采用描述性分析（即频率、百分比）进行分析。
共有 574 名符合条件的受访者完成了调查。总体而言，396 人（69%）报告在过去 12 个月内访问过在线和印刷版指南，其中 185 人（33%）访问过仅在线版指南。在过去 12 个月中，使用最频繁的是所有指南中紧急避孕指南（278 人，48%）。总体而言，受访者报告访问指南是为了更新知识、检查他们的实践是否反映了最佳实践以及熟悉内容。受访者不访问指南的原因是他们表示不需要该信息，或者他们之前已经超过 12 个月访问过指南。这些原因在不同的受访者群体之间有所不同。
药剂师、实习药剂师和学生对药剂师专用药物指南的访问和使用情况各不相同。进一步了解这些指南使用的影响因素将有助于告知专业团体如何最好地制定指南，以增加在实践中的一致使用，并实施干预措施以增加使用。
