Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation
Zimbabwean pharmacists undergo university level education to understand the biochemical mechanisms and actions of medicines but are limited in their scope of practice. They are called medicines experts, yet they are not allowed to apply their specialized knowledge independently in direct patient man...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Pharmacy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4787/10/3/54 |
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| author | Douglas Chiutsi Fatima Suleman Velisha Ann Perumal-Pillay |
| author_facet | Douglas Chiutsi Fatima Suleman Velisha Ann Perumal-Pillay |
| author_sort | Douglas Chiutsi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Zimbabwean pharmacists undergo university level education to understand the biochemical mechanisms and actions of medicines but are limited in their scope of practice. They are called medicines experts, yet they are not allowed to apply their specialized knowledge independently in direct patient management. We aim to obtain Zimbabwean pharmacists’ perceptions on extending their scope of practice and to evaluate the Zimbabwe pharmacy honours degree curriculum to determine the competencies covered and whether these are in-line with an extended scope of practice. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with selected pharmacists were conducted to gather perspectives on the BPharm (Hons) curricula and extending pharmacists’ scope of practice. A desktop review of the pharmacy curricula was also conducted to determine competencies covered. The results showed that pharmacists are keen to extend their scope of practice but the curriculum does not equip them with the required exit level competencies. “<i>The pharmacist is obviously not equipped currently but needs to be involved in direct patient care such as identifying and managing medicine therapy problems, prescription extension, ordering and reviewing laboratory data and administration</i><i>of vaccines and immunizations</i>”. There exists an opportunity for pharmacists to extend their scope of practice in order to achieve universal health coverage. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:44:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dbb09281092747b2a14309a009627a34 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-4787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:44:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Pharmacy |
| spelling | doaj.art-dbb09281092747b2a14309a009627a342023-11-23T18:31:46ZengMDPI AGPharmacy2226-47872022-05-011035410.3390/pharmacy10030054Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum EvaluationDouglas Chiutsi0Fatima Suleman1Velisha Ann Perumal-Pillay2Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South AfricaDiscipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South AfricaDiscipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South AfricaZimbabwean pharmacists undergo university level education to understand the biochemical mechanisms and actions of medicines but are limited in their scope of practice. They are called medicines experts, yet they are not allowed to apply their specialized knowledge independently in direct patient management. We aim to obtain Zimbabwean pharmacists’ perceptions on extending their scope of practice and to evaluate the Zimbabwe pharmacy honours degree curriculum to determine the competencies covered and whether these are in-line with an extended scope of practice. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with selected pharmacists were conducted to gather perspectives on the BPharm (Hons) curricula and extending pharmacists’ scope of practice. A desktop review of the pharmacy curricula was also conducted to determine competencies covered. The results showed that pharmacists are keen to extend their scope of practice but the curriculum does not equip them with the required exit level competencies. “<i>The pharmacist is obviously not equipped currently but needs to be involved in direct patient care such as identifying and managing medicine therapy problems, prescription extension, ordering and reviewing laboratory data and administration</i><i>of vaccines and immunizations</i>”. There exists an opportunity for pharmacists to extend their scope of practice in order to achieve universal health coverage.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4787/10/3/54pharmacist perspectivesextending pharmacist rolesprimary healthcarepharmacy curriculumuniversal health coverageZimbabwe |
| spellingShingle | Douglas Chiutsi Fatima Suleman Velisha Ann Perumal-Pillay Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation Pharmacy pharmacist perspectives extending pharmacist roles primary healthcare pharmacy curriculum universal health coverage Zimbabwe |
| title | Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation |
| title_full | Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation |
| title_fullStr | Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation |
| title_short | Extending Pharmacist Roles in Primary Healthcare to Meet the Needs of Universal Health Coverage in Zimbabwe: A Pharmacist Perspective and Curriculum Evaluation |
| title_sort | extending pharmacist roles in primary healthcare to meet the needs of universal health coverage in zimbabwe a pharmacist perspective and curriculum evaluation |
| topic | pharmacist perspectives extending pharmacist roles primary healthcare pharmacy curriculum universal health coverage Zimbabwe |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4787/10/3/54 |
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