Through the Looking Glass: Public and Professional Perspectives on Patient-centred Professionalism in Modern-day Community Pharmacy

Abstract

This paper presents five consultation workshops with 29 community pharmacists, stakeholders and patients that examined "patient-centred professionalism" in terms of pharmacists' working day and environment. The concept is ill-defined in both medical and pharmacy literature and the study aimed to clarify the situated nature of the term for patients and health professionals across settings. Workshops were supported by bio-photographic datasets of "in-situ" practice and Nominal Group Work. The thematic content analyses led to the following aspects: building caring relationships; managing external forces; the effects of space and environment, and different roles and expectations. The study reveals how patient-centred professionalism cannot be defined in any singular or stationary sense, but should be seen as a "moveable feast", best understood through everyday examples of practice and interaction, in relation to whose experience is being expressed, and whose needs considered. The phrase is being mobilised by a whole set of interests and stakeholders to reshape practice, the effect of which remains both uncertain and contested. Whilst patients prioritise a quick and efficient dispensing service from knowledgeable pharmacists, pharmacists rail against increasing public demands and overtly formalised consultations that take them away from the dispensary where the defining aspects of their professionalism lie. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100177