PHARMACISTS' current understandings and views about self-care are presented in a new publication launched by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) yesterday.
The report, Community pharmacy insights: Supporting the need for self-care, is the latest output of the FIP Multinational Needs Assessment Programme, reflecting country-level needs to provide evidence-based policy support for workforce development, mapped against the 21 FIP Development Goals.
The report presented the findings of an online questionnaire (238 respondents from 55 countries), short interviews, and a literature review, aiming to describe pharmacists' understanding of the concept of self-care and assess needs related to education and training.
Among the findings was the confirmation that the majority of respondents believe that pharmacists should be actively supporting and promoting self-care and are developing more opportunities to extend their contributions in this area.
Educating and advising patients about their self-limiting conditions emerged as the most commonly employed approach reported by respondents (79.4%), followed by advising on the use of medication (74.4%) and providing medicines (59.2%).
Health education websites are the most widely employed resources (44.5%), then health tracking apps (36.6%) and lastly diagnostic tests (29.8%).
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