The role of community pharmacy in the promotion of continence care: A systematic review.

Objectives: Community pharmacies are convenient healthcare settings which provide a wide range of services in addition to medicine supply. Continence care is an area where there is an opportunity for the implementation of new innovations to improve clinical and service outcomes. The objective was to systematically evaluate evidence for the effectiveness, safety, acceptability and key determinants of interventions for the promotion and implementation of continence care in the community pharmacy setting.

The Burden of Managing Medicines for Older People With Sensory Impairment: An Ethnographic-Informed Study.

Older age is associated with increased prevalence of sensory impairment and use of medicines. To explore the daily "medicine journey" of older people with sensory impairment. The study used ethnographic-informed methods (using audio-, photo- and video-recordings, diary notes and semi-structured interviews with researchers) and involved community-dwelling adults (aged > 65) in Scotland, with visual and/or hearing impairment and using >4 medicines.

Practice pharmacists and their influence on prescribing in UK general practice: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: At the time of the survey, just over 2000 pharmacists were employed in UK general practice. Little is known about their influence on prescribing, and more specifically, the extent of their use of Audit and Feedback (A&F), an evidence-based method for behaviour change. This study aimed to explore pharmacists' current influence on prescribing in UK general practice.

Pharmacy users' perceptions, awareness and future expectations of community pharmacy in England: a focus group study.

Objective: To explore pharmacy users' perceptions of current and future provision of community pharmacy services in England.

Methods: Qualitative, reconvened focus groups were conducted with community pharmacy users. An initial focus group explored preliminary views.

Selling antibiotics without prescriptions among community pharmacies and drug outlets: a simulated client study from Ghana.

Background: Selling antibiotics without prescriptions is mostly illegal worldwide, including in Ghana, and promotes antimicrobial resistance. We evaluated the prevalence and practice of selling antibiotics without prescriptions among community pharmacies (CPs) and drug outlets, for the first time, in Ghana to quantify and characterize this issue to inform future interventions.

Research Design And Methods: Two scenarios utilizing the Simulated Client Methodology were enacted: an upper respiratory tract infection of viral origin (scenario one); and pediatric diarrhea (scenario two).

Professional stakeholders' expectations for the future of community pharmacy practice in England: a qualitative study.

Objectives: To explore the views of professional stakeholders on the future of community pharmacy services in England. Specific objectives related to expectations of how community pharmacy services will be provided by 2030 and factors that will influence this.

Design: Qualitative, using semistructured interviews in person or via telephone/Skype.

Assistive technologies and strategies to support the medication management of individuals with hearing and/or visual impairment: A scoping review.

Background: Individuals with sensory impairment (visual and/or hearing) experience health inequalities and increased the risk of medication-related iatrogenic disease compared with the general population. Assistive technologies and tailored strategies could support medication management for individuals with sensory impairment to reduce harm and increase the likelihood of therapeutic benefit.

Objective: This scoping review identified assistive technologies and strategies to support medication management of/for people with hearing and/or visual impairment.

Professional and governmental policy on community pharmacy: A 10-year policy review and comparative analysis (2008-2017).

Background: An increased role for community pharmacy might bring considerable value to healthcare systems, for example by relieving workload elsewhere in primary care through the provision of medicines-related services. This requires support from appropriate policy.

Objectives: To explore the representation of community pharmacy in governmental and professional health policies in England (2008-2017) using the Walt and Gilson policy framework.

National initiative to promote public involvement in medicine safety: the use of a cross-sectional population survey to identify candidate behaviours for intervention development in Scotland.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the public's current awareness of the safe use of medicines in general, and over-the-counter (OTC) analgesics (painkillers) in particular, as well as their information-seeking and advice-seeking, medicine use and disposal.

Setting: General population, Scotland.

Participants: Adults (aged >16 years) living in Scotland.

Audit and feedback interventions involving pharmacists to influence prescribing behaviour in general practice: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Pharmacists, as experts in medicines, are increasingly employed in general practices and undertake a range of responsibilities. Audit and feedback (A&F) interventions are effective in achieving behaviour change, including prescribing. The extent of pharmacist involvement in A&F interventions to influence prescribing is unknown.

Prescribing of direct oral anticoagulants and warfarin to older people with atrial fibrillation in UK general practice: a cohort study.

Background: Anticoagulation for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) has, historically, been under-used in older people. The aim of this study was to investigate prescribing of oral anticoagulants (OACs) for people aged ≥ 75 years in the UK before and after direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) became available.

Methods: A cohort of patients aged ≥ 75 years with a diagnosis of AF was derived from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) between January 1, 2003, and December 27, 2017.

Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of User-Testing of Health Professionals' Guidelines to Reduce the Frequency of Intravenous Medicines Administration Errors by Nurses in the United Kingdom: A Probabilistic Model Based on Voriconazole Administration.

Aim: In the UK, injectable medicines are often prepared and administered by nurses following the Injectable Medicines Guide (IMG). Our earlier study confirmed a higher frequency of correct administration with user-tested versus standard IMG guidelines. This current study aimed to model the cost-effectiveness of user-testing.

What influences the implementation and sustainability of antibiotic stewardship programmes in hospitals? A qualitative study of antibiotic pharmacists' perspectives across South West England.

Objectives: Antibiotic stewardship programmes (ASPs) are needed at every hospital as they can improve antibiotic use and address antibiotic resistance. Pharmacists are key agents and specialists in these programmes. This study explored antibiotic pharmacists' perceptions of factors that influence the implementation and sustainability of hospital-based ASPs.

A multi-stakeholder approach to the co-production of the research agenda for medicines optimisation.

Background: Up to 50% of medicines are not used as intended, resulting in poor health and economic outcomes. Medicines optimisation is 'a person-centred approach to safe and effective medicines use, to ensure people obtain the best possible outcomes from their medicines'. The purpose of this exercise was to co-produce a prioritised research agenda for medicines optimisation using a multi-stakeholder (patient, researcher, public and health professionals) approach.

Multiplicity and complexity: a qualitative exploration of influences on prescribing in UK general practice.

Objectives: Despite widespread availability of evidence-based guidelines to inform rational use of medicines, considerable unwarranted variation exists in prescribing. A greater understanding of key determinants of contemporary prescribing in UK general practice could inform strategies to promote evidence-based prescribing. This study explored (1) current influences on prescribing in general practice and (2) the possibility that general practice-based pharmacists (PBPs) may contribute to greater engagement with evidence-based prescribing.

Using the behaviour change technique taxonomy v1 (BCTTv1) to identify the active ingredients of pharmacist interventions to improve non-hospitalised patient health outcomes.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify which behaviour change techniques (BCTs) were present in intervention and control groups of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) included in a Cochrane systematic review.

Setting: The RCTs included were conducted in community, primary and/or ambulatory-care settings.

Participants: The data set was derived from 86 RCTs from an interim update of the Cochrane review of the effectiveness of pharmacist services on non-hospitalised patient outcomes.

Oral versus intra-vaginal imidazole and triazole anti-fungal treatment of uncomplicated vulvovaginal candidiasis (thrush).

Background: Anti-fungals are available for oral and intra-vaginal treatment of uncomplicated vulvovaginal candidiasis.

Objectives: The primary objective of this review is to assess the relative effectiveness (clinical cure) of oral versus intra-vaginal anti-fungals for the treatment of uncomplicated vulvovaginal candidiasis. Secondary objectives include the assessment of the relative effectiveness in terms of mycological cure, in addition to safety, side effects, treatment preference, time to first relief of symptoms, and costs.

A systematic review using the Theoretical Domains Framework to identify barriers and facilitators to the adoption of prescribing guidelines.

Objectives: Evidence-based guidelines have the potential to reduce variation and increase prescribing quality. Identifying the key determinants to their uptake, using a theory-based approach, may assist in the design of successful interventions to increase their adoption into practice. This systematic review investigated barriers and facilitators identified using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to the implementation of prescribing guidelines.

User-testing guidelines to improve the safety of intravenous medicines administration: a randomised in situ simulation study.

Background: User-testing and subsequent modification of clinical guidelines increases health professionals' information retrieval and comprehension. No study has investigated whether this results in safer care.

Objective: To compare the frequency of medication errors when administering an intravenous medicine using the current National Health Service Injectable Medicines Guide (IMG) versus an IMG version revised with user-testing.

User Testing to Improve Retrieval and Comprehension of Information in Guidelines to Improve Medicines Safety.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of user testing for improving healthcare professionals' retrieval and comprehension of information in medicines guidelines.

Methods: The United Kingdom's Injectable Medicines Guide was selected as a case study. This gives guidance to nurses on preparing and administering intravenous medicines on hospital wards, in line with standard UK practice.

Do pharmacy intervention reports adequately describe their interventions? A template for intervention description and replication analysis of reports included in a systematic review.

Introduction: Scientific progress and translation of evidence into practice is impeded by poorly described interventions. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) was developed to specify the minimal intervention elements that should be reported.

Objectives: (1) To assess the extent to which outpatient pharmacy interventions were adequately reported.

Use of oral anticoagulants in older people with atrial fibrillation in UK general practice: protocol for a cohort study using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) database.

Introduction: Warfarin has frequently been underused in older people for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF). Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) entered the UK market from 2008 and have been recommended as an alternative to warfarin. This study aimed to describe any changes in the prescribing of oral anticoagulants (OACs) to people aged ≥75 years in UK general practice before and after the introduction of DOACs, to examine differences in patient characteristics which may influence prescribers' decisions regarding anticoagulation, to evaluate the time people stay on OACs and switching between OACs.