Introduction Community pharmacy in Saudi Arabia faces many challenges. There is a lack of empirical research about medication safety in community pharmacy from the perspective of different stakeholders. A holistic approach is needed to identify medication safety problems. Aim To explore factors associated with medication safety in this setting. Methods Three empirical studies were undertaken. Focus groups explored medication safety problems using the Human Factors Framework and a Delphi exercise prioritised these problems. Interviews were conducted with pharmacy users to explore their willingness to share information with pharmacists during consultations using the Self-Regulatory Model. Results Four focus groups and four interviews (n=35 participants) identified seven main themes: commercialism; illegal supply of medication; lack of enforcement of regulations; the healthcare system; self-medication; trust in pharmacists; and communication and information exchange. Consensus was achieved with 28/84 items identified during the Delphi study. The top five priorities were: lack of pharmacy facilities; pharmacists' communication between pharmacists and physicians; patient databases; post-registration education; and pharmacists' long working hours. The interview study (n=21) identified that trust in pharmacists was the main enabler in sharing information. Barriers were pharmacists' perceived attitudes towards counselling, workload, lack of motivation, patient proxies, type of questions asked, gender and lack of privacy. Both the focus group study and the interview study highlighted pharmacy users' consumerist behaviour. Conclusion This research has shown that community pharmacy is a complex system involving many interacting factors. Multifactorial interventions are needed at individual (patient, pharmacist), pharmacy and organisational level. The effect of consumerist behaviour that pharmacy users exercise in purchasing medication without utilising the pharmacist's expertise and not engaging in dialogue on patient safety should be studied. Further research is needed to analyse pharmacy users' interactions with pharmacists to identify the factors that encourage communication and sharing of all relevant information with pharmacists.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:737929 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Al-Juffali, Lobna |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=235753 |
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