Abstract
With the expansion of pharmacists’ roles, pharmacists have been included in primary healthcare teams to provide collaborative patient care. The general practice pharmacist service model has increasingly gained prominence since the early 2010s in Australia. However, Australia still lags in widening the services of general practice pharmacists across the country compared to other countries, such as Canada and the UK. This research aimed to evaluate the inclusion of pharmacists into general practice teams in Australia. The research included a systematic review, a prospective observational study, a multiphase mixed methods study, a cross-national survey, and a cross-sectional survey study. The research summarised the literature on various aspects of the general practice pharmacist service model in Australia and identified the knowledge deficits. The findings have shown that pharmacist-led activities had the potential to enhance the quality of care in general practice by improving clinical outcomes, reducing healthcare costs, and strengthening interprofessional collaboration. The research findings further demonstrated that patients were highly satisfied with the services of pharmacists in general practice. This research has suggested that utilisation of pharmacists’ skills in the general practice setting should be further expanded to improve medication safety and patient health outcomes across Australia.| Date of Award | 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Sam KOSARI (Supervisor) & Mark NAUNTON (Supervisor) |