Can community pharmacy practitioners support patients who take oral anticancer medication? Patients’ needs and views
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Can community pharmacy practitioners support patients who take oral anticancer medication? Patients’ needs and views

Melanie Dalby Highly specialist oncology pharmacist, Guy’s and Saint Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, England
Catherine Oakley Consultant nurse, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, England
Kumud Kantilal Pharmacist, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

As more oral anticancer agents are available community pharmacy practitioners (CPPs) may need to play a greater role in supporting people with cancer. This article describes a service evaluation that aimed to identify the supportive care needs of patients who take oral anticancer medication (OAM). The objectives were to identify whether patients visit their community pharmacy in relation to their cancer or OAM and to explore their perceptions and experiences of support from CPPs. Findings from a survey, focus group and interviews show patients have mixed experiences of and opinions about CPPs. The article suggests that community pharmacy is an underused resource for people with cancer, probably because of low awareness by patients and lack of training for CPPs in supporting patients taking OAMs. Patient education and further training of pharmacists in this area would be beneficial to both parties and could reduce some of the pressures on health services.

Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2018.e1525

Citation

Dalby M, Oakley C, Kantilal K (2018) Can community pharmacy practitioners support patients who take oral anticancer medication? Patients’ needs and views. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2018.e1525

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

Melanie.dalby@gstt.nhs.uk

Conflict of interest

The main author received funding from the King’s Health Partners Pharmaceutical Science Clinical Academic Group

Published online: 06 December 2018

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