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Pharmacists’ experiences serving culturally and linguistically diverse patients in the Australian community pharmacy setting

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Abstract

Background There has been no in depth published study to date reporting on community pharmacists’ current experiences and their future practice needs relating to providing culturally competent pharmaceutical care to Australian culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency. Objective To explore community pharmacists’ experiences serving culturally and linguistically diverse patients who have low English proficiency. Setting Community pharmacists in Australia. Method Focus group discussions with practising community pharmacists were conducted. Participants were recruited from metropolitan Sydney. Discussion centred around their current experiences and practice changes needed to enhance the provision of culturally competent pharmaceutical care. Thematic analysis using the constant comparison method within a grounded theory approach was performed on the data collected. Main outcome measure Participants’ experiences in providing culturally competent care to culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency. Results Thirty community pharmacists participated in six focus group discussions. Inadequate provision of culturally competent care was found to be primarily due to the issue of language incongruence between pharmacist and patient. Participants proposed various means with which such care may be provided to ensure patient safety. Conclusion Pharmacist participants expressed being inadequately equipped to provide culturally competent care in the community setting and identified potential means by which such care may be delivered. Addressing identified barriers that hinder community pharmacists’ capacity to engage in culturally competent practice can potentially improve provision of pharmaceutical care to culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency.

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Notes

  1. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is an Australian Government program that benefits all Australians by subsidising medicines to make them more affordable. More info: http://www.pbs.gov.au/pbs/home.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the community pharmacists who participated in this study which provided an insight into the experiences of community pharmacists providing healthcare to CALD LEP patients. They would like to also thank the Sydney Pharmacy School for infrastructure and research support.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Annim Mohammad had secured the Australian Postgarduate Award from the Australian Government to support her Doctoral pursuits.

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  1. The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Annim Mohammad, Bandana Saini & Betty Bouad Chaar

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  1. Annim Mohammad
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Correspondence to Betty Bouad Chaar.

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Mohammad, A., Saini, B. & Chaar, B.B. Pharmacists’ experiences serving culturally and linguistically diverse patients in the Australian community pharmacy setting. Int J Clin Pharm 43, 1563–1573 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-021-01284-5

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