General practitioners’ views of pharmacist services in general practice: a qualitative evidence synthesis

Abstract

Background Pharmacist services in general practice are expanding worldwide, with evidence to show pharmacists’ presence in general practice has financial, workload, and clinical benefits. Yet, little is known globally about general practitioners’ (GPs’) views on their presence in general practice. Objective To synthesize the qualitative research evidence on GPs’ views of pharmacist services in general practice. Methods Qualitative evidence synthesis; 8 electronic databases were searched from inception to April 2021 for qualitative studies that reported the views of GPs regarding pharmacist services in general practice. Data from included studies were analyzed using thematic synthesis. The Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual) approach was used to assess the confidence in individual review findings. Results Nineteen studies were included, which captured the views of 159 GPs from 8 different countries. Four analytical themes describing the factors that should be considered in the development or optimization of pharmacist services in general practice, based on the views of GPs, were developed from the coded data and descriptive themes: (i) optimal environment for a pharmacist, (ii) the ideal pharmacist characteristics, (iii) complex stakeholder relationships, and (iv) benefits of an effective pharmacist. Conclusion Based on the synthesis of GPs’ views, we have created a conceptual model of factors that should be considered by policymakers, GPs, pharmacists, and other relevant stakeholders when developing or optimizing pharmacist services in general practice going forward.

General practitioners’ perceptions of pharmacists working in general practice: a qualitative interview study

“…Whilst this study, like the recent QES, 11 found that some GPs were interested in pharmacists undergoing additional postgraduate training, a notable suggestion from the present study was to have internships in practices during pharmacists’ undergraduate training. Hazen et al designed a learning programme to train pharmacists to work in practices, and concluded that additional training is required to encourage role implementation.…”

“…This study’s findings share broad similarity with the recent QES regarding GPs’ views on pharmacists in practices. 11 However, a notable contrast was that the present study had conflicting viewpoints about pharmacist capabilities in managing complex patients, e.g. whereby GPs included multimorbid older patients here.…”

“…Semistructured interviews were conducted by EH using a topic guide ( Supplementary File 1 ) that was iteratively developed based on the TDF (mapping shown in Supplementary File 2 ), the aforementioned recent QES in this area, and discussions amongst the research team. 11 , 16 The topic guide was then piloted with 2 GPs working in separate practices not affiliated with the study team. GPs who agreed to be interviewed returned signed consent forms and verbal consent was also acquired before interviews began.…”

“…A recent qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) describes GPs’ views on the matter, 11 which highlighted that only 3 published studies address GPs’ views regarding integrating pharmacists into practices prior to having worked alongside a pharmacist 12–14 ; two of these investigated GPs’ views amongst patients, pharmacists, and practice managers, 13 , 14 and the other only interviewed GPs working in private practices. 12 Furthermore, that QES deemed only 12/54 findings to be of “high confidence” when assessed using the GRADE CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) approach, emphasizing the need to enhance data adequacy in this area of research.…”

GPs’ and pharmacists’ views of integrating pharmacists into general practices: a qualitative study

“…In this study, it was apparent that the PBP role varied between practices and there were several activities undertaken by PBPs which have previously been identified. 12,24,26,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] However, insufficient time and current workload were perceived as barriers to undertaking some activities and have been noted in other research. 23,35,39,40 Integrating pharmacy technicians into general practice was suggested as a way to save PBP time to conduct more clinical work and thus make better use of PBP skills.…”