Patient-Centred Counselling Tools for Dispensing Contraceptives in Community Pharmacy Settings: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND

The patient-centred counselling tools are a comprehensive resource to assist community pharmacists in providing effective treatment choices and assisting with decision-making.

AIM

To identify and select suitable tools community pharmacists use with targeted patient-centred outcomes for dispensing contraceptives.

METHODS

Five electronic databases, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar as additional sources for published and unpublished studies, were searched to identify literature for contraceptive tools or strategies for pharmacists to decide on contraceptive choice and dispensing by pharmacist. Studies involving pharmacists or tools suitable for pharmacists from any country, published since 1990 were considered.

RESULTS

A total of 21 publications met the inclusion criteria. Robvis' tool was used for visualizing the risk of bias for each result. There were three studies that used the tools specifically by community pharmacists and others focused on general family planning users and pharmacists. The suitability of patient-centred interventions in community pharmacy settings was further evaluated.

CONCLUSION

The evidence for special tools for pharmacists for dispensing contraceptives in community settings is limited and further research is needed to develop and evaluate novel interventions for pharmacists in community settings.