Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated

BACKGROUND: Primary Care Drug Therapy (PCDT) is a supplementary training course for South African pharmacists. The qualification affords pharmacists an expanded scope of practice to treat specific primary health care conditions. OBJECTIVE: To describe the practice settings and conditions being treat...

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Autores principales: Tromp, Maxine, Truter, Ilse, du Toit, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10618503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37920751
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsop.2023.100352
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author Tromp, Maxine
Truter, Ilse
du Toit, Jan
author_facet Tromp, Maxine
Truter, Ilse
du Toit, Jan
author_sort Tromp, Maxine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Primary Care Drug Therapy (PCDT) is a supplementary training course for South African pharmacists. The qualification affords pharmacists an expanded scope of practice to treat specific primary health care conditions. OBJECTIVE: To describe the practice settings and conditions being treated by PCDT pharmacists in South Africa, with specific focus on differences between services delivered in urban versus rural areas. METHODS: An online questionnaire survey was conducted under all PCDT trained pharmacists in 2021. RESULTS: Less than half (45.3%; n = 34) of the 75 respondents had received their Section 22 A(15) permit and were practicing as PCDT pharmacists. Of these respondents, only 41.2% were practicing in a rural setting. Overall, respondents indicated that ear, nose and throat conditions, and family planning, were the most often consulted conditions. Differences were, however, observed between provinces, and between urban and rural areas. Family planning, urological conditions and sexually transmitted infections were most frequently consulted in urban areas, whilst gastrointestinal conditions, and ear, nose and throat conditions, were more common in rural areas. CONCLUSIONS: Conditions treated in the different settings in South Africa provided a unique insight into the epidemiological profile of the area, as well as the primary health care needs.
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spelling pubmed-106185032023-11-02 Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated Tromp, Maxine Truter, Ilse du Toit, Jan Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm Article BACKGROUND: Primary Care Drug Therapy (PCDT) is a supplementary training course for South African pharmacists. The qualification affords pharmacists an expanded scope of practice to treat specific primary health care conditions. OBJECTIVE: To describe the practice settings and conditions being treated by PCDT pharmacists in South Africa, with specific focus on differences between services delivered in urban versus rural areas. METHODS: An online questionnaire survey was conducted under all PCDT trained pharmacists in 2021. RESULTS: Less than half (45.3%; n = 34) of the 75 respondents had received their Section 22 A(15) permit and were practicing as PCDT pharmacists. Of these respondents, only 41.2% were practicing in a rural setting. Overall, respondents indicated that ear, nose and throat conditions, and family planning, were the most often consulted conditions. Differences were, however, observed between provinces, and between urban and rural areas. Family planning, urological conditions and sexually transmitted infections were most frequently consulted in urban areas, whilst gastrointestinal conditions, and ear, nose and throat conditions, were more common in rural areas. CONCLUSIONS: Conditions treated in the different settings in South Africa provided a unique insight into the epidemiological profile of the area, as well as the primary health care needs. Elsevier 2023-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10618503/ /pubmed/37920751 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsop.2023.100352 Text en © 2023 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tromp, Maxine
Truter, Ilse
du Toit, Jan
Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title_full Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title_fullStr Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title_full_unstemmed Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title_short Primary care drug therapy pharmacists in South Africa: Practice settings and conditions treated
title_sort primary care drug therapy pharmacists in south africa: practice settings and conditions treated
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10618503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37920751
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsop.2023.100352
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