Pharmacists' roles in assisted reproductive technology.

Background: The global issue of infertility has prompted an increased reliance on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) for conception. In Australia, patients have previously accessed ART medications through specialist clinics, however recently due to modifications in ART medication subsidisation, community pharmacists now dispense and counsel patients on ART medications. Patients residing in rural and remote locations face challenges in accessing fertility clinics, which are primarily located in metropolitan and large regional cities.

Bridging Allied Health Professional Roles to Improve Patient Outcomes in Rural and Remote Australia: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.

Purpose: Australia's rural and remote populations experience inequality of access to healthcare, with demand exceeding capacity for delivery of health services, often due to a maldistribution of the health workforce. A strategy which may overcome barriers to accessing adequate healthcare includes implementation of interdisciplinary collaborative teams, identified as a successful method of healthcare delivery. This study thus aimed to explore interdisciplinary allied health collaborative practice in a rural community.

Expanded practice for rural community pharmacy: what are we waiting for?

Objective: To synthesise stakeholder (consumer, pharmacist and health professional) perspectives of expanded pharmacy practice in rural and remote community pharmacy.

Methods: Comparison of perspectives of stakeholder groups identified by four studies has highlighted the expected outcomes and anticipated barriers to expanded pharmacy practice. Aligning the studies has identified priority areas of health for which pharmacists may be able to provide expanded service delivery.

Rural pharmacists and stakeholders perspectives of expanded pharmacy practice: A descriptive study.

Objective: To explore pharmacist and stakeholder perspectives of pharmacists providing expanded services in rural community pharmacies.

Design: A descriptive qualitative study with an ethnographic lens of rural culture collected data via in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholder representatives and rural and remote pharmacists.

Setting: Regional, rural and remote practice settings as defined by the Modified Monash Model MM3-MM7.

LISTEN UP (Locally Integrated Screening and Testing Ear aNd aUral Programme): a feasibility study protocol for a community pharmacy-based ear health intervention.

Background: Ear disease is a major cause of preventable hearing loss and is very common in rural communities, estimated to affect 1.3 million Australians. Rural community pharmacists are well placed to provide improved ear health care to people who are unable to easily access a general practitioner (GP).

The Rural Pharmacy Practice Landscape: Challenges and Motivators.

Background: Health outcome delivery for rural and remote Australian communities is challenged by the maldistribution of the pharmacy workforce. High staff turnover rates, reduced pharmacist numbers, and reliance on temporary staff have placed great strain on both state health services and rural community pharmacies. However, recent changes to the demographic profile of the rural pharmacist including a lower average age and increased time spent in rural practice highlights a more positive future for the delivery of better health outcomes for rural communities.

Rural pharmacy workforce: Influence of curriculum and clinical placement on pharmacists' choice of rural practice.

Objective: This two-phase study aimed to explore the influence of a university rural curriculum and clinical placements on pharmacists' choice to practise in a rural or remote area.

Design: A sequential mixed-methods approach involved the design of both a questionnaire and semistructured in-depth interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data.

Setting: Regional, rural and remote practice areas according to the Pharmacy Access/Remoteness Index of Australia classifications.

Scoping the impact of curriculum and placement on the rural pharmacy workforce.

Objective: The objective of this review was to scope the impact of university rural curriculum and rural clinical placements on students' intentions to practise rurally and rural pharmacists' choice of rural practice.

Design: The scoping review used Arskey and O'Malley's methodological framework, searching the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Informit and Scopus. This scoping review followed PRISMA for article reporting.