General practitioners’ perceptions of the current status and pharmacists’ contribution to primary care in Iceland

Anna Bryndis Blöndal, Jon Steinar Jonsson, Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong, Anna Birna Almarsdóttir

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Background For the past several years pharma-
    cists’ responsibilities have expanded globally from tradi-
    tional tasks of dispensing medications to collaborating with
    other health care professiona ls in patient care. Similar
    developments have not occurred in outpatient settings in
    Iceland. Objective The aim of this study was to explore
    Icelandic general practitioners’ views on the current status
    of primary care, their percept ions of pharmacists as a
    health care profession, and their attitudes towards future
    GP-pharmacist collaboration in primary care in Iceland.
    Setting Twelve primary care clinics in Iceland. Methods
    Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with
    general practitioners from different primary care clinics in
    Iceland. A purposive and snowbal l sampling technique was
    used to select participants. All interviews were recorded
    and transcrib ed verbatim. The transcripts were categorized
    by themes and then analyzed using conventional content
    analysis. Main outcome measure General practitioners’
    attitudes towards pharmacists. Results Twenty general
    practitioners from twelve different primary care clinics in
    Iceland were interviewed. There are several unmet needs
    regarding medicines and patient monitoring in the Ice-
    landic health care system. General practitioners suggested
    ways in which these gaps may be addressed and pharma-
    cist-led clinical service was one of the suggestions.
    Currently, their communication with pharmacists in the
    primary sector solely surrounds practical non-clinical
    issues. Due to increas ing polypharmacy and multimorbid-
    ity, they suggested that pharmacists should be more
    involved in patient care. Conclusions General practiti oners
    believe that pharmac ist-led clinical service can increase the
    quality of patient therapy. To improve communication
    between these health care providers, pharmacists must also
    re-professionalize (strengthening the profession
    ´
    s status
    through new responsibilities and tasks), not having a con-
    flict of interest and showing that they have expertise in
    patient care.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalInternational Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
    Volume39
    Pages (from-to)945-952
    ISSN2210-7703
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017

    Cite this