“Vaccination needs to be easy for the people, right ?”: a qualitative study of the roles of physicians and pharmacists regarding vaccination in Switzerland

OBJECTIVE: Vaccination in pharmacies has been a key component of national vaccination strategies to facilitate vaccination access. Qualitative data on the perspectives of professional stakeholders on vaccination in pharmacies and on the professional relations of pharmacists with physicians regarding increasing immunisation rates is limited. We conducted a qualitative study in Switzerland. The main aim was to gain further insight into professional stakeholders’ perspectives on vaccination counselling and administration conducted in pharmacies, and to further understand their views on physicians’ and pharmacists’ roles in increasing immunisation rates. DESIGN: We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews. We coded and analysed transcripts using thematic analysis. SETTING: Face-to-face interviews took place in German-speaking and French-speaking regions of Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: We interviewed 14 key vaccination stakeholders including health authorities, heads of pharmacy management and professional association boards. All participants had a background in medicine or pharmacy. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged from the qualitative data: (1) Participants viewed pharmacists as competent to provide vaccination counselling and administration based on their university training; (2) interprofessional cooperation between physicians and pharmacists on vaccination topics is limited and should be improved; and (3) pharmacists play an important role in increasing immunisation rates by facilitating vaccination access and through provision of vaccination counselling. CONCLUSION: By providing vaccination counselling and administering vaccines, pharmacists play an important public health role. Healthcare policies and health authorities should encourage more involvement of pharmacists and encourage interprofessional cooperation between physicians and pharmacists in order to improve vaccination counselling and increase immunisation rates.