Pharmacists' self-perception of their professional role: insights into community pharmacy culture.

OBJECTIVE To obtain an understanding of how community pharmacists self-describe their professional role, in order to begin understanding some of the assumptions underlying pharmacy culture. DESIGN Cross-sectional qualitative study. SETTING Edmonton, Canada, and surrounding area. PARTICIPANTS 115 community pharmacists. INTERVENTION Brief telephone interview. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURE Pharmacists' self-description/perception of their professional role and its relation to underlying assumptions of pharmacy culture. RESULTS 100 pharmacists provided usable responses. The majority of pharmacists practiced in a community chain setting (76%) and within the city of Edmonton (81%). The median length of time in practice was 15 years. A total of 278 separate response items were obtained. Of these responses, 45% were categorized as product focused, 29% as patient centered, and 26% as ambiguous. The first response of 52 of the 100 pharmacists was a product-focused description of their role. Overall, in either their first or second response, 57% of the pharmacists used the term "dispensing" or dispensing-related terms to describe their professional role. CONCLUSION The results of this study seem to suggest that community pharmacists who participated viewed themselves primarily as "dispensers of medication," not patient-centered practitioners. Sustainable pharmacy practice change will be possible only if the current culture aligns with change initiatives. Our findings may suggest that pharmacists' self-perception of what they do and, perhaps by extension, the culture of pharmacy itself, could be important barriers to implementing practice change initiatives. We need to better understand the culture of pharmacy to foster meaningful practice change.