The COVID conversations: A content analysis of Canadian pharmacy organizations’ communication of pharmacists’ roles and services during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique challenge for pharmacists as they navigated information scarcity on the frontlines while being identified as information experts. Alberta pharmacists looked to their professional organizations for direction regarding what their roles should be in a crisis. The objective of this study was to explore pharmacists’ roles and services and how they were communicated by pharmacy organizations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The study used a conventional content analysis method to explore the online communication of relevant pharmacy organizations for Alberta pharmacists. Five organization websites (National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities, Canadian Pharmacists Association [CPhA], Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists [CSHP], Alberta College of Pharmacy [ACP] and the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association [RxA]) were examined to identify and catalogue publicly accessible documents that communicated pharmacists’ roles and services during the first year of the pandemic for Alberta pharmacists. RESULTS: A total of 92 documents were collected from CPhA (60), CSHP (2), ACP (26) and RxA (4). While most documents communicated information about pharmacists’ roles in public health, patient care and drug and personal protective equipment supply, more than one-third of the documents (32/92, 34.8%) required contextual information to interpret the communication. There was an observed shift in the communication after the first 6 months, becoming more direct in its messaging and context. CONCLUSION: These pharmacy organizations communicated information for pharmacists’ roles and services to provide direction and guidance in the ever-changing context of the COVID-19 pandemic for Alberta pharmacists. Their communication became clearer and more direct as the pandemic progressed, requiring less inference to understand the intended message.