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Pharmacist perspectives towards pharmaceutical care services in neonatal intensive care units in Australia and Poland

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to, first, investigate the perceptions of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) pharmacists and directors of pharmacy in Australia and Poland regarding their level of preparation to perform pharmaceutical care services in the NICU, and second, identify practice barriers and ways to improve services.

Method

A cross-sectional, electronic-based survey was distributed among NICU pharmacists and directors of pharmacy working in hospitals with a NICU in Australia and Poland. The survey comprised 12 items, and the majority of questions were fixed binary ‘agree/disagree’ answers, supplemented by open-ended questions.

Results

A total of 29 participants from Australia and 20 from Poland completed the survey. Overall, it is apparent that Australian pharmacists felt more competent in clinical and educational roles than Polish participants. For 14 of the 15 clinical roles listed, more than 70% of Australian participants felt that pharmacists had a ‘good’ level of preparation to provide services to the NICU, including performing medication chart reviews (93.1%) and pharmaceutical interventions (96.6%), and collaborating with medical and nursing staff (93.1%). A significantly higher proportion of Polish than Australian pharmacists agreed that changes were needed to improve pharmacist practice in the NICU (90 vs. 53.6%; p = 0.007).

Conclusion

Future efforts should focus on developing guidelines and practice standards for sub-specialties of pharmacist practice, such as neonatology, to promote the standardization of practice.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all of the pharmacists and directors of pharmacy in hospitals in Australia and Poland for their invaluable assistance and cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Health (Pharmacy), University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Natalia Krzyżaniak & Beata Bajorek

  2. Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of Gdansk, Dębowa Str. 23, 80-204, Gdańsk, Poland

    Iga Pawłowska

Authors
  1. Natalia Krzyżaniak
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  2. Iga Pawłowska
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  3. Beata Bajorek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Natalia Krzyżaniak.

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Ethical approval

Ethics approval was obtained from the ethics committees at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia (ref no. ETH16-1033) and the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland (ref no. NKBBN/424/2016).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Krzyżaniak, N., Pawłowska, I. & Bajorek, B. Pharmacist perspectives towards pharmaceutical care services in neonatal intensive care units in Australia and Poland. Drugs Ther Perspect 34, 573–582 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-018-0556-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-018-0556-5

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