Cargando…

Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study

Background: Community pharmacists are involved in antimicrobial stewardship through self-care advice and delivering medications for uncomplicated infections. Objectives: This mixed methods study aimed to identify opportunities to enhance the role of community pharmacists in the management of service...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan, Allison, Rosalie, Jones, Leah F., Holmes, Alison, Patel, Parvesh, Lecky, Donna M., Ahmad, Raheelah, McNulty, Cliodna A. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32906824
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9090583
_version_ 1783594856137883648
author Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan
Allison, Rosalie
Jones, Leah F.
Holmes, Alison
Patel, Parvesh
Lecky, Donna M.
Ahmad, Raheelah
McNulty, Cliodna A. M.
author_facet Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan
Allison, Rosalie
Jones, Leah F.
Holmes, Alison
Patel, Parvesh
Lecky, Donna M.
Ahmad, Raheelah
McNulty, Cliodna A. M.
author_sort Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan
collection PubMed
description Background: Community pharmacists are involved in antimicrobial stewardship through self-care advice and delivering medications for uncomplicated infections. Objectives: This mixed methods study aimed to identify opportunities to enhance the role of community pharmacists in the management of service users with suspected or confirmed urinary tract infection (UTI). Methods: Data collection was through a service user survey (n = 51) and pharmacist surveys and semi-structured interviews before (16 interviews, 22 questionnaires) and after (15 interviews, 16 questionnaires) trialing UTI leaflets designed to be shared with service users. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis and descriptive tabulation of quantitative data. Results: Twenty-five percent (n = 13/51) of service users with urinary symptoms sought help from a pharmacist first and 65% (n = 33/51) were comfortable discussing their urinary symptoms with a pharmacist in a private space. Community pharmacists were confident as the first professional contact for service users with uncomplicated UTI (n = 13/16, 81%), but indicated the lack of a specific patient referral pathway (n = 16/16, 100%), the need for additional funding and staff (n = 10/16, 62%), and the importance of developing prescription options for pharmacists (5/16, 31%). All community pharmacists reported playing a daily role in controlling antimicrobial resistance by educating service users about viral and bacterial infections and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Enhancing their role will need greater integrated working with general practices and more prescribers based in community pharmacy. Conclusion: This study suggests that community pharmacists could play a greater role in the management of uncomplicated UTI. The current reconfiguration of primary care in England with primary care networks and integrated care systems could provide a real opportunity for this collaborative working with potential learning for international initiatives.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7559416
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75594162020-10-26 Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan Allison, Rosalie Jones, Leah F. Holmes, Alison Patel, Parvesh Lecky, Donna M. Ahmad, Raheelah McNulty, Cliodna A. M. Antibiotics (Basel) Article Background: Community pharmacists are involved in antimicrobial stewardship through self-care advice and delivering medications for uncomplicated infections. Objectives: This mixed methods study aimed to identify opportunities to enhance the role of community pharmacists in the management of service users with suspected or confirmed urinary tract infection (UTI). Methods: Data collection was through a service user survey (n = 51) and pharmacist surveys and semi-structured interviews before (16 interviews, 22 questionnaires) and after (15 interviews, 16 questionnaires) trialing UTI leaflets designed to be shared with service users. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis and descriptive tabulation of quantitative data. Results: Twenty-five percent (n = 13/51) of service users with urinary symptoms sought help from a pharmacist first and 65% (n = 33/51) were comfortable discussing their urinary symptoms with a pharmacist in a private space. Community pharmacists were confident as the first professional contact for service users with uncomplicated UTI (n = 13/16, 81%), but indicated the lack of a specific patient referral pathway (n = 16/16, 100%), the need for additional funding and staff (n = 10/16, 62%), and the importance of developing prescription options for pharmacists (5/16, 31%). All community pharmacists reported playing a daily role in controlling antimicrobial resistance by educating service users about viral and bacterial infections and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Enhancing their role will need greater integrated working with general practices and more prescribers based in community pharmacy. Conclusion: This study suggests that community pharmacists could play a greater role in the management of uncomplicated UTI. The current reconfiguration of primary care in England with primary care networks and integrated care systems could provide a real opportunity for this collaborative working with potential learning for international initiatives. MDPI 2020-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7559416/ /pubmed/32906824 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9090583 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Peiffer-Smadja, Nathan
Allison, Rosalie
Jones, Leah F.
Holmes, Alison
Patel, Parvesh
Lecky, Donna M.
Ahmad, Raheelah
McNulty, Cliodna A. M.
Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title_full Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title_fullStr Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title_full_unstemmed Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title_short Preventing and Managing Urinary Tract Infections: Enhancing the Role of Community Pharmacists—A Mixed Methods Study
title_sort preventing and managing urinary tract infections: enhancing the role of community pharmacists—a mixed methods study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32906824
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9090583
work_keys_str_mv AT peiffersmadjanathan preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT allisonrosalie preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT jonesleahf preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT holmesalison preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT patelparvesh preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT leckydonnam preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT ahmadraheelah preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy
AT mcnultycliodnaam preventingandmanagingurinarytractinfectionsenhancingtheroleofcommunitypharmacistsamixedmethodsstudy