Towards consensus: defining and supporting a professional role for pharmacists associated with traditional and complementary medicines – a protocol of implementing an international e-survey

Abstract

IntroductionTraditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) are predominantly self-selected from retail outlets including pharmacies as part of self-care practices. Concerns about the appropriate and safe use of T&CM products raises questions about ‘should’ and ‘how’ pharmacists could adopt professional responsibilities. There lacks a consensus about the scope of these responsibilities, or the initiatives required to execute them. The aim of this study is to identify an international set of core responsibilities that support pharmacists’ contribution to ensuring the quality and safe use of T&CMs to promote public health.Methods and analysisAn international cross-sectional e-survey of pharmacists representing the six WHO regions will be conducted over a 12-month period. Pharmacists will be invited via representative organisations and professional networks within their respective country. Survey responses to statements about the relevance of T&CM to day-to-day practice; opinions about the bioethical and practice responsibilities; and support required to build their scope of practice associated with T&CM will be collected centrally via the online survey platform Survey Monkey and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences V.27 software for Windows. Bivariate statistical analysis will be conducted to examine the associations between agreement to statements within each section with key demographic variables, country of practice, pharmacy type, age, gender, qualification and years in practice. Cronbach’s alpha will be used to test the internal consistency of items from certain sections of the survey and evince their clarity to respondents of the questionnaire.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been obtained from the University of Macau (approval number SSHRE21-APP068-ICMS-01). The results of this survey will be used to inform key discussion points in a consensus process and a step towards developing an agreed and defined professional role for pharmacists in T&CMs.

Defining and supporting a professional role for pharmacists associated with traditional and complementary medicines: a cross-country survey of pharmacists

“…A cross-sectional online survey with convenience sampling was conducted across nine countries: Carbo Verde, China, Croatia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. The full study protocol is reported elsewhere ( Harnett et al, 2022 ) in accordance with the guidelines of STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) ( Von Elm et al, 2007 ) and the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) ( Eysenbach, 2004 ). This cross-country collaboration was led by researchers based at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, and The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health in New South Wales, Australia.…”

“…The survey was constructed using the online survey platform Survey Monkey. The processes for developing and testing the survey are outlined in the study protocol ( Harnett et al, 2022 ). When translation from English to another language was required for dissemination in non-English speaking countries, the collaborator located in that country organized the translation of the survey instrument and further testing for face validity.…”

“…A total of 43 items focused on pharmacists and T&CM products formed the survey (see S2) ( Harnett et al, 2022 ). A question confirming consent to participate was embedded following a brief participant information statement outlining the research and the purpose of the study.…”

“…As outlined in the study protocol ( Harnett et al, 2022 ), the anonymous meta-data collected from the nine countries were stored in Survey Monkey before exporting to Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 software for Windows for analysis. Section 1 of the survey (i.e., participants’ demographic data) was analyzed descriptively.…”