Japanese Nationwide Comparative Survey of Medication Guidance Provided by Certified and Uncertified Palliative Care Pharmacists.
J Nippon Med Sch
; 90(6): 449-459, 2023.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38246616
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
As members of a medical team, pharmacists are expected to provide optimal patient-centered, evidence-based pharmacotherapy. In Japan, in consideration of the importance of palliative care, a system was initiated for certifying palliative care pharmacists in 2010. However, no studies have evaluated the usefulness of board certification in palliative pharmacy. Therefore, we surveyed the status of medication guidance for the physical and psychological symptoms of patients receiving palliative care and compared the medication guidance provided by certified and uncertified pharmacists.METHODS:
The survey was conducted in February and March 2022. Pharmacists registered as members of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Palliative Care and Sciences were surveyed by using a web-based questionnaire and 209 pharmacists responded the certified pharmacist group comprised 123 (58.9%) pharmacists and the uncertified pharmacist group comprised 86 (41.1%) pharmacists.RESULTS:
The certified pharmacist group provided better and more frequent medication guidance, according to responses to four of the six items related to pain relief. Three items were related to non-pain symptom relief, and one of the four items was related to psychiatric symptom relief (P < 0.05). The study showed that the certified pharmacist group received a better rating than the uncertified pharmacist group for involvement in palliative pharmacotherapy leading to improvement of patient quality of life (P < 0.05).CONCLUSION:
As compared with uncertified pharmacists, certified pharmacists intervened more proactively and provided a broader range of palliative care.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Palliative Care
/
Pharmacists
Type of study:
Guideline
Aspects:
Patient_preference
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
J Nippon Med Sch
Journal subject:
MEDICINA
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article