PPhoCUs: Polypharmacy, Pharmacists and Clinical Uncertainty
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PPhoCUs: Polypharmacy, Pharmacists and Clinical Uncertainty
IRAS ID
336527
Contact name
Tomazo Kallis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
2022-23-31, Sponsor Reference
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 30 days
Research summary
People prescribed a large number of drugs (more than 10) are more likely to be admitted to hospital, suffer a life-changing fall or be generally more unwell, than people who do not regularly take a large number of medicines. The more medical conditions a person has and the greater number of medicines a person is prescribed, the more difficult decision making can become for healthcare professionals giving advice or treating that patient. When the next best step for a patient is unclear, this is referred to as ‘clinical uncertainty.’
Pharmacists have been introduced to GP practices over the past five years and although they are experts in medicines, their university training is not enough for pharmacists to start working in GP practices independently after qualifying. Pharmacists need to undertake further nationally recommended postgraduate training for 18 months to enable this. Although their training is robust, pharmacists can struggle making decisions in situations of clinical uncertainty, as their training does not focus on this in the same way that GP training does. This is important, as one of the key things pharmacists in GP practice are employed to do is review patients on large numbers of medicines.
This study will analyse audio recordings taken from patient appointments with GP pharmacists to understand how they make their decisions with people. Both the pharmacists and patients will be invited separately to individual interviews to share their experiences. Pharmacists will be asked how they make their decisions in practice when faced with clinical uncertainty. Patients will be invited to share their experience of their GP pharmacist appointment. Findings from these interviews and recordings will help develop future recommendations for pharmacist education and practice in GP settings.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0120
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jun 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion