Pharmacists Successfully Integrate with Multi-Professional Health Care Teams
Researchers explored pharmacists’ ability to collaborate with other health care professionals in single-disciplinary outpatient practice environments.
Pharmacists exhibited successful capabilities of collaboration with other health care professionals in a primary care clinic, according to data published in the Canadian Pharmacists Journal.1 The researchers’ findings underscore the dynamic aspects of these relationships and pharmacists’ abilities in medication management.
“Interprofessional care is endorsed by professionals and policymakers alike as the model for health service delivery in Canada,” wrote the authors. “Primary care pharmacists embedded in general medical practices with physicians and other health professionals positively impact direct patient care.”
Indeed, pharmacists’ scope of practice and their ability to work with other health care professionals—e.g. physicians, nurse practitioners, and other health care specialists—has been explored for many years. According to the authors of the study, pharmacists have previously demonstrated their abilities in optimizing therapies, patient outcomes, and their quality of life.
Researchers wanted to visualize and characterize relationships between members of pharmacist-led primary care clinics. | image credit: digitalskillet1 / stock.adobe.com
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On top of pharmacists’ proving their roles in general medical practice, previous studies have confirmed the significance of pharmacists’ roles in the management of chronic diseases,2 as well as cancers such as breast, cervical, lung, and ovarian.3
However, in primary care settings specifically, pharmacists are often known to be separated from other health care professionals and often practice in their own, independent clinics.
“The social network analysis (SNA) research paradigm investigates relationship ties between individuals or groups in a given context,” continued the authors.1 “By mapping these relationships and connections, SNA can uncover unique patterns, structures, and compositions of networks and how they influence behavior. Using SNA, research project objectives were to visualize and characterize network member relationships in pharmacist-led primary care and how these impact patient care.”
Using the SNA approach, the researchers’ goal was to visualize and characterize relationships between members of pharmacist-led primary care clinics and how these relationships impact patient outcomes.
They began by recruiting 3 pharmacist-led primary care clinics in Canada to be included in the analysis. In these clinics, pharmacists conducted patient appointments in person or in consultation rooms, as well as remotely via telephone and video conference. On top of consultations, general medication management services were available at all 3 clinics.
While all clinic pharmacists in Canada (14) were invited to participate, 11 pharmacist-led clinics were included (45% female pharmacists; mean time in clinic practice, 3.5 years). From dieticians and nurse practitioners to community pharmacists and neurologists, the providers working at these Canadian clinics span health care professionals, nursing professionals, other pharmacists, physicians, and non-health professionals like patients and medical administrators.
“Pharmacists maintained relationships with network members by purposeful communication and favorable patient-oriented outcomes,” they wrote. “We identified how these network relationships and other system factors subsequently influenced collaboration and patient care, resulting in practice agility or paralysis and emphasis on patient self-advocacy.”
Through the dynamic work and myriad of patient-centered services, findings from the study demonstrate the ability for interprofessional challenges to be overcame. With pharmacists exhibiting their success in working with other professionals, patients, and their families, they formed and maintained relationships despite sometimes being embedded in spaces separated from other professionals.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, clinic pharmacists could identify as members of multiple teams for different patients, transcending physical spaces,” they continued.1 “While communication was an essential factor for establishing and maintaining these relationships, pharmacists put confidence in the medication management work itself.”
As pharmacists’ scope of practice continues to evolve, their opportunities for providing care outside of traditional pharmacy settings are growing. While further research is conducted and pharmacists continue to overcome interprofessional challenges, the researchers’ findings are a promising look toward the future of valued, collaborative patient care.
“Our findings underscore the dynamic nature of these relationships in pharmacist networks and how they are navigated to support pharmacist-led medication management,” concluded authors of the study.1 “Primary care pharmacists attempt to overcome encountered barriers to implementing patient care plans through various strategies, which include leveraging new and existing network relationships.”
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