Behaviours that contribute to pharmacist professionalism: a scoping review

Deanna Mill; Amy Theresa Page; Jacinta Johnson; Renae Lloyd; Sandra Salter; Kenneth Lee; Liza Seubert; Rhonda Marise Clifford; Danielle D'Lima

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070265

Behaviours that contribute to pharmacist professionalism: a scoping review

BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 26;13(6):e070265. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070265.

Authors

Deanna Mill¹, Amy Theresa Page², Jacinta Johnson^{3

4}, Renae Lloyd⁴, Sandra Salter², Kenneth Lee², Liza Seubert², Rhonda Marise Clifford², Danielle D'Lima⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Allied Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia Deanna.Mill@research.uwa.edu.au.
² School of Allied Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
³ Clinical and Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁴ SA Pharmacy, SA Health, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Behaviour Change, Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Objectives: Clearly understanding and describing professional behaviours of pharmacists allows the profession, researchers and policy-makers to observe and monitor the professionalism of pharmacists, and design interventions to improve it where needed. The primary objective of this review was to identify which behaviours are discussed to contribute to professionalism in registered pharmacists in peer-reviewed literature. The secondary objective was to review the identified behaviours using a behavioural specification framework to understand how they are expressed.

Design: A scoping literature review was conducted.

Data sources: An electronic database search of Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO, PsychArticles, Emcare and Medline limited to articles published in English from 1 January 2000 to 21 October 2022 was conducted.

Eligibility criteria: Eligible articles contributed behaviourally relevant content with reference to registered pharmacists' professionalism.

Data extraction and synthesis: Extracted behaviourally relevant content was subject to researcher's familiarisation, then deductive coding to one of two overarching definitions of technical or non-technical behaviour. Data were then inductively coded through assignment of a descriptive code to identify categories of professional behaviour within these two overarching types of behaviour.

Results: Seven articles were identified and included in the final analysis. From the extracted behaviourally relevant content, 18 categories of behaviours were identified. All articles identified behaviours in categories titled 'establishes effective relationships' and 'complies with regulations codes and operating procedures'. Identified behaviours were often broadly described and merged with descriptions of influences on them and broader outcomes that they contribute to.

Conclusions: Behaviours described to contribute to pharmacists' professionalism in the literature are broad and non-specific.

Keywords: Pharmacist; professional behaviour; professionalism.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Databases, Factual
Humans
Pharmacists*
Professional Role
Professionalism*