Iwona Wrześniewska-Wal

Vaccination in pharmacy. Knowledge and attitudes of physicians-in-training toward pharmacists’ new competencies for adult vaccination in pharmacies – a pilot study

2024-04-17

This article presents the results of a pilot study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of physicians in training about adult vaccination in pharmacies and the impact of these results on the collaboration between the two communities. The Pharmacy Profession Act has changed the role and tasks of the pharmacist, who from then on could provide health services as part of the pharmaceutical care. Immunization is the first health service in Poland to be provided as part of such care by pharmacists in pharmacies. An important novelty of the pilot is to show the attitudes of young physicians toward the new competencies of pharmacists in qualifying and performing vaccinations in pharmacies. The pilot study presents the point of view of physicians (mean age 33 years) who were undergoing specialty training in 2023. Physicians’ knowledge of pharmacy vaccinations that may be fully or partially publicly funded, i.e., COVID-19, influenza, and pneumococcal, was assessed. The results indicate that physicians had the greatest knowledge of pharmacy vaccination against COVID-19 and influenza. In the study group, only 37% of physicians recommended pharmacy vaccination. The larger the city in which the physician worked, the more often he or she recommended pharmacy vaccination. However, 63% of physicians surveyed did not recommend pharmacy vaccinations. The pilot identified reasons why young physicians did not do so. Respondents most often answered that they did not recommend pharmacy vaccination because patients did not ask for it (31%), patients got vaccinated at the health center (26%), and that physicians do not cooperate with pharmacies on vaccination (23%). The survey shows that there is an urgent need to include training on adult immunization, which can be delivered in pharmacies, in the educational programs of all health professions, including physicians. Pharmacists can support this vaccination education. Therefore, collaboration at the local leveli.e., community pharmacy - health center or family physician practice, is essential. Particular attention should be paid to the contact between physicians and pharmacists in large urban areas where cooperation between the two groups is lacking or limited.

Keywords: cooperation, physician, pharmacist, vaccination.

© Farm Pol, 2024, 80(1): 3–9