Browsing by Subject "farmaseuttisen hoidon filosofia"

Traditionally pharmacists’ activities have focused on the manufacturing and compounding of medicinal products. The production of medicines has shifted from pharmacies to industrial mass production since the 1960s, and correspondingly, the production of medicinal products by pharmacists in community pharmacies has declined and is now almost completely absent. It has been concluded that pharmacists are over-educated, and their skills are not fully utilized. Authorities and pharmacy organizations have expressed interest in pharmacists’ extended role, which includes patient care and cognitive services. Professional identity refers to the conscious understanding and awareness of oneself as a professional, which is based on an individual's life history: it is the relationship between the individual, work and profession, and its future. Professional identity has been seen to influence the performance of health workers, in terms of both competence and responsiveness. The purpose of this study is to describe pharmacists’ perceptions of their professional identity and its possible change from the beginning of 1990 to 2019. A systematized review was conducted in October 2019. Altogether 12 publications were selected in the systematized review. All the studies were qualitative. In eight studies, interviews were used as the research method. Two selected studies used a focus group discussion as the research method, and two studies used both interviews and focus group discussions. One study used interviews and focus group discussions as well as survey as research methods. From the basis of this study, no conclusion can be drawn that the professional identity of pharmacists has evolved from a product orientation towards a more patient-centered care provider. Because of the complex and dispersed nature of community pharmacy practices, and the many factors that are involved in them in different contexts, it is difficult to interpret and understand what the core function of a pharmacist is in a community pharmacy. Pharmacists could not describe their activities and their roles explicitly. The researchers concluded that pharmacists had not attained as clear and strong professional identity in their current occupation, as it had been in the past when drugs were still manufactured in the community pharmacy. Community pharmacists balanced between two conflicting roles as pharmacists and business managers. Pharmacists, patients, and politicians alike perceived community pharmacy as a business. This view is further supported by the context, the physical premises of the community pharmacy, which are generally more suitable for retail than patient care. This may represent a challenge for the implementation of pharmacists’ extended role.