Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ownership of community pharmacies on the perception of organizational identity and its relationships with organizational performance.

A survey was carried out on a sample of pharmacists working in community pharmacies in Portugal. The sample comprised 1,369 pharmacists, of whom 51 percent were owner-managers. Measures of pharmacies’ normative (community health oriented) and utilitarian (business oriented) identities, identity strength (clear and unifying), substantive (stockholder focused) and symbolic (society focused) performance were included.

Both owners and employed pharmacists rated the normative identity of pharmacies higher than the utilitarian identity. Compared with employed pharmacists, owners perceive a lower level of utilitarian identity, the same level of normative identity, and higher levels of identity strength. Normative identity and identity strength predicted symbolic performance. Normative and utilitarian identities and identity strength predicted substantive performance. The relationship between utilitarian identity and substantive performance was significant among owner pharmacists but not among employed pharmacists.

The limitations include the use of perceptive measures and the focus on the individual level of analysis.

In order to improve pharmacies’ performance, pharmacists who manage community pharmacies are challenged to reconcile tensions arising from the co-existence of business and community health identities and from their own agency (self-serving) and stewardship (altruistic) motives.

This study draws on institutional, identity and stewardship theories to understand how pharmacists, owners and employees, view the identity of community pharmacies and how identity relates to organizational performance.

Organisational culture (OC) shapes individuals’ perceptions and experiences of work. However, no instrument capable of measuring specific aspects of OC in community pharmacy exists. The purpose of this paper is to report the development and validation of an instrument to measure OC in community pharmacy in Great Britain (GB), and conduct a preliminary analysis of data collected using it.

Instrument development comprised three stages: Stage I: 12 qualitative interviews and relevant literature informed instrument design; Stage II: 30 cognitive interviews assessed content validity; and Stage III: a cross-sectional survey mailed to 1,000 community pharmacists in GB, with factor analysis for instrument validation. Statistical analysis investigated how community pharmacists perceived OC in their place of work.

Factor analysis produced an instrument containing 60 items across five OC dimensions – business and work configuration, social relationships, personal and professional development, skills utilisation, and environment and structures. Internal reliability for the dimensions was high (0.84 to 0.95); item-total correlations were adequate (r=0.46 to r=0.76). Based on 209 responses, analysis suggests different OCs in community pharmacy, with some community pharmacists viewing the environment in which they worked as having a higher frequency of aspects related to patient contact and safety than others. Since these aspects are important for providing high healthcare standards, it is likely that differences in OC may be linked to different healthcare outcomes.

This newly developed and validated instrument to measure OC in community pharmacy can be used to benchmark existing OC across different pharmacies and design interventions for triggering change to improve outcomes for community pharmacists and patients.

To date, community pharmacy research has largely focused on the impact of service quality elements on patronage behavior. Investigation into the influence of cost and value is limited. The purpose of this study is to explore what is known about customers’ perceptions of cost and value, and how these influence patronage patterns in community pharmacy.

A scoping review framework was used to conduct a systematic search of four databases with the addition of articles sourced from reference lists. The database search was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis: Extension for Scoping Reviews protocol. Studies were analyzed in terms of author name, date of publication, study location, study population, methods and key findings.

The 26 studies retrieved were qualitative or quantitative in nature and included a broad sample population. Both cost and value were found to be key factors influencing pharmacy choice. Pharmacy customers were found to perceive costs in terms of monetary, psychological, emotional and convenience-related sacrifices. Value was either perceived as relating to the worth or utility of a good or service, or in terms of a trade-off relationship between what was received and given up by the consumer.

A comprehensive interrogation into the true meaning of “value” to consumers is warranted to improve quantitative measurement instruments.

Pharmacies may attempt to influence customer behavior by minimizing unfixed costs to the consumer such as the price of goods and services and time costs.

This review highlights the need for academic enquiry into how consumers trade-off perceived costs for service in community pharmacy.

The New Zealand Pharmacy Action Plan 2016–20 acknowledges the young, highly qualified pharmacist workforce, and seeks to address pharmacist underutilisation in the wider health setting. Anecdotal evidence suggests many recently qualified pharmacists are dissatisfied with the profession. Therefore, those completing BPharm programs after 2002, who had left or were seriously considering leaving the New Zealand pharmacy profession, were invited to comment on future-focused pharmacy documents, and the current direction of pharmacy in New Zealand.

An online questionnaire was open December 2018 to February 2019. Recruitment occurred via e-mail lists of universities and professional organisations, print and social media, and word-of-mouth. Free-text responses were thematically analysed using a general inductive approach.

From the 328 analysable surveys received, 172 respondents commented on the documents and/or direction of the pharmacy profession. Views were mixed. Overarching document-related themes were positive direction, but concern over achievability, the lack of funding details, lack of implementation, their benefits for pharmacists and the public, and ability to bring about change and secure a future for the profession. Overall pharmacy was considered an unattractive profession needing to change.

This study highlights dissatisfied recent BPharm graduates agree with the vision in the documents but do not see progress towards achieving the vision occurring, leading to frustration and exit in some cases. Policymakers should be aware of these views as considerable resource goes into their development.

Employees in community pharmacies play a far significant and distinct role compared to the employees in traditional retail stores. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of employee performance (EP) on customer loyalty of pharmacy services.

Data were collected through a self-administered survey filled in by the customers of 25 community pharmacies. A total of 679 completely filled-in questionnaires were analysed. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling using AMOS 22.

EP positively affects pharmacy customers’ perceived value (PV), trust and loyalty. PV and trust fully mediates the relationships between EP and customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Unlike short-term customers, the long-term relational customers’ PV was found to have significant impact on their trust and behavioural loyalty.

This study is based on the Australian community pharmacy industries; hence, caution must be exercised in the generalization of the results to other countries. The study has considered only PV and trust in examining the link between the EP and customer loyalty. Other variables such as commitment could possibly influence the link, which has not been considered in this study.

The study contributes to the existing literature by focusing on how EP affects both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of pharmacy customers. It shows empirical evidence that EP influences customers’ PV and trust en-route to influencing their loyalty. The study measures EP based on both empathy and service provider performance covering a broader spectrum of the construct.

This study explores nurses' views as to whether they see community pharmacists as “entrepreneurial” and what this might mean for working together in primary care. Pharmacists are expected to fully integrate with their colleagues – particularly nurses – under the New Zealand health policy. Yet, there is scarce literature that examines multidisciplinary teamwork and integration through an entrepreneurial identity lens. This is particularly important since around the world, including New Zealand, community pharmacies are small businesses.

This was an exploratory qualitative study. A total of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses from primary care, nursing professional bodies and academics from nursing schools. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Coding was undertaken through general inductive thematic analysis.

In total three key themes emerged through analysis: the entrepreneurial profile of the community pharmacist, the lack of entrepreneurship across the profession, and the role identity and value that community pharmacists hold, as viewed by nurses. There appeared to be pockets of entrepreneurship in community pharmacy; nurses did not express a blanket label of entrepreneurship across the whole sector. Nurses also discussed several forms of entrepreneurship including commercial-oriented, clinical and social entrepreneurship. The social entrepreneurship identity of community pharmacists sat most comfortably with nurse participants. Overall, nurses appeared to value community pharmacists but felt that they did not fully understand the roles that this profession took on.

This paper contributes to the academic literature by identifying three domains of entrepreneurship relevant to community pharmacy as well as multi-level barriers that will need to be jointly tackled by professional bodies and policy-makers. Improving nurses' and other healthcare professionals' knowledge of community pharmacists' role and expertise is also likely to facilitate better inter-professional integration.

There is scarce literature that attempts to understand how entrepreneurial identity plays out in health organisation and management. This study adds to the knowledge base of factors influencing integration in healthcare.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the Irish community pharmacy sector in the context of power relationship theory. Specifically, the paper analyses the relationship between dispensary software vendors and the independent community pharmacist; and explore dominant industry partners' influence on individual pharmacies in terms of technology adoption. The core objective is to ascertain whether the potential for a cooperative construct can be realised in this milieu. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive literature review precedes a full investigation and analysis of the Irish community pharmacy sector's competitive environment, in the context of the pre‐mentioned power relationship theory. Findings – This research uncovered a potential alternative to the industry's existing power imbalance in the form of a cooperative construct between a team of independent community pharmacists and an employed software vendor. The purpose of this partnership was to ensure the installed software focused on the pharmacist's strategic needs rather than those of the dominant partners. The paper goes on to discuss the failure of this partnership in the context of independent pharmacist's future competitive survival. Research limitations/implications – Data collection was limited to the community pharmacy sector in the Republic of Ireland. Therefore, care should be taken in making generalisations from this study. Practical implications – In the absence of cooperative constructs, power relationship imbalances will continue to exist in this competitive environment, to the detriment of the small firm. Originality/value – Little research has been completed in the area of small business cooperative constructs as a means of competing successfully in a power relationship scenario. This paper goes some way to redressing this.

Against a backdrop of concerns regarding the quality and equity of the final practice-based pre-registration training year, the purpose of this paper is to examine how robust and equitable current education and training arrangements in Great Britain are in preparing newly qualified pharmacists (NQPs) for practice.

In addition to considering relevant regulator, policy and research literature, this paper presents findings from a longitudinal qualitative study that tracked 20 pharmacy trainees and their tutors during pre-registration training and early registered practice. Trainees were interviewed four times over a 12-month period; tutors were interviewed twice. Semi-structured interviews explored learning and development, work environment and support received. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically using template analysis.

Currently, there are no requirements tor training pre-registration tutors, or for accreditation or quality assurance of training sites. Longitudinal interview findings showed that community trainees developed knowledge of over-the-counter and less complex, medicines whereas hospital trainees learnt about specialist medicines on ward rotations. Hospital trainees received support from a range of pharmacists, overseen by their tutor and other healthcare professionals. Community trainees generally worked within a small pharmacy team, closely supervised by their tutor, who was usually the sole pharmacist. NQPs were challenged by having full responsibility and accountability as independent practitioners, without formal support mechanisms.

The variability in trainee experience and exposure across settings raises concerns over the robustness and equity of pre-registration training. The lack of formal support mechanisms post-registration may pose risks to patient safety and pharmacists’ well-being.

Located as intermediaries between patients/customers and national health systems, community pharmacies have to negotiate increasing government demands for free advice, pressure on their earnings and an increasingly deregulated market. A comparative assessment of the German and UK markets highlights the tensions pharmacists face as healthcare providers and retailers, assessing the ways in which each group copes with growing competitive challenges. Based on a grounded theory study of community pharmacies in Berlin/Brandenburg and the Greater Manchester area the role of pharmacies within their local neighbourhoods is discussed and the potential for the transfer of marketing intelligence between the two countries evaluated.

This study aims to examine the effects of pharmacy service factors (namely, medication teaching, service promptness, pharmacist attitudes, medication supply and pharmacy location) on patient satisfaction with community pharmacies in Jordan and to explore the effect of patient satisfaction on pharmacy performance.

Descriptive analytical methodology, with a quantitative approach using survey strategy was applied. The study population represented the whole population of Jordan (2.033 million households). Data were collected using an online questionnaire. A convenient quota sample of 1,000 respondents was targeted; 502 valid questionnaires were returned, representing an effective response rate of 50.2%. The study hypotheses were tested using path analysis.

The results showed that the service factors contributing most significantly to patient satisfaction in Jordan are medication supply, pharmacist attitudes, medication teaching and service promptness, in descending order of influence. Meanwhile, the effect of pharmacy location on patient satisfaction proved to be insignificant. In addition, patient satisfaction proved to have a highly positive impact on pharmacy performance.

This study addresses a debatable issue in the literature regarding the influence that pharmacy service factors can have on patient satisfaction. In addition, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the proposed effects in Jordan. It is also one of the first to investigate the effect of patient satisfaction on community pharmacy performance.