Prospective health students' perceptions of the pharmacist role in the interprofessional team.

Prospective health students' perceptions of the pharmacist role in the interprofessional team. J Interprof Care. 2017 Oct 23;:1-4 Authors: Hickey EL, Dumke EK, Ballentine RL, Brown BL Abstract Negative perceptions or underdeveloped understanding of healthcare team member roles can impact the functionality of the team and stunt innovations in interprofessional practice and education. Therefore, the intent of this study was to explore the perception of pharmacists' role on the healthcare team by future team members: prospective health professional students. The study utilised a survey to examine these perceptions in prospective health professional students (n = 34) nearing the application process to health professional school. A coding process was used to explore open-ended text responses through a line-by-line analysis and identify emerging themes regarding perception of pharmacists' roles, responsibilities, and practice settings. Quantitative data examined perception of pharmacists by intended prospective profession, healthcare experience, and pharmacy experience. Results indicate that while prospective health professional students find pharmacists to be an important part of the healthcare team, they lack a developed understanding of pharmacists' roles, responsibilities, and practice settings. Identifying and addressing prospective health professional students' misperceptions surrounding pharmacists' roles and responsibilities may ...
Source: Journal of Interprofessional Care - Category: Health Management Tags: J Interprof Care Source Type: research