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Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study

Background: In recent years, a systematic increase in the role and powers of pharmacists has been observed. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this is a professional group that is extremely necessary for the smooth functioning of the health care system. One of the important powers of pharmacists i...

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Autores principales: Miszewska, Jagoda, Wrzosek, Natalia, Zimmermann, Agnieszka
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8834828/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031648
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author Miszewska, Jagoda
Wrzosek, Natalia
Zimmermann, Agnieszka
author_facet Miszewska, Jagoda
Wrzosek, Natalia
Zimmermann, Agnieszka
author_sort Miszewska, Jagoda
collection PubMed
description Background: In recent years, a systematic increase in the role and powers of pharmacists has been observed. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this is a professional group that is extremely necessary for the smooth functioning of the health care system. One of the important powers of pharmacists is the possibility of issuing prescriptions for both patients in the pharmacy and for themselves and their family members. Polish pharmacists obtained extended entitlements in this field in March 2020. Due to the extension of pharmacists’ prescribing rights in Poland, it was decided in this study to determine the current practice of pharmaceutical prescribing, and pharmacists’ views on their new duties. Methods: The study used the method of a questionnaire, which was distributed to all pharmacists actively working in Poland. During the study, 309 completed questionnaires were obtained that gathered information about prescriptions written by pharmacists, as well as their opinions related to this entitlement. The results of the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Out of all authorized pharmacists, 75.62% use the new, extended authorization to issue pharmaceutical prescriptions. About half of them believe their prescriptions should be refundable. Only 11.52% of respondents do not use the entitlement to issue prescriptions for themselves or their family members. In addition, it was noticed that those who write such prescriptions most often use the fully paid version. Conclusions: Polish pharmacists use the new entitlements willingly but carefully. The legal provisions governing electronic prescription should be clearer. In addition, the idea of continued prescription should be developed as this is the most common reason that pharmacists issue prescriptions.
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spelling pubmed-88348282022-02-12 Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study Miszewska, Jagoda Wrzosek, Natalia Zimmermann, Agnieszka Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: In recent years, a systematic increase in the role and powers of pharmacists has been observed. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this is a professional group that is extremely necessary for the smooth functioning of the health care system. One of the important powers of pharmacists is the possibility of issuing prescriptions for both patients in the pharmacy and for themselves and their family members. Polish pharmacists obtained extended entitlements in this field in March 2020. Due to the extension of pharmacists’ prescribing rights in Poland, it was decided in this study to determine the current practice of pharmaceutical prescribing, and pharmacists’ views on their new duties. Methods: The study used the method of a questionnaire, which was distributed to all pharmacists actively working in Poland. During the study, 309 completed questionnaires were obtained that gathered information about prescriptions written by pharmacists, as well as their opinions related to this entitlement. The results of the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Out of all authorized pharmacists, 75.62% use the new, extended authorization to issue pharmaceutical prescriptions. About half of them believe their prescriptions should be refundable. Only 11.52% of respondents do not use the entitlement to issue prescriptions for themselves or their family members. In addition, it was noticed that those who write such prescriptions most often use the fully paid version. Conclusions: Polish pharmacists use the new entitlements willingly but carefully. The legal provisions governing electronic prescription should be clearer. In addition, the idea of continued prescription should be developed as this is the most common reason that pharmacists issue prescriptions. MDPI 2022-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC8834828/ /pubmed/35162670 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031648 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Miszewska, Jagoda
Wrzosek, Natalia
Zimmermann, Agnieszka
Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title_full Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title_fullStr Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title_short Extended Prescribing Roles for Pharmacists in Poland—A Survey Study
title_sort extended prescribing roles for pharmacists in poland—a survey study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8834828/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031648
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