Abstract
Objectives: To explore the participation of pharmacists in diabetes self-management education/training (DSME/T) programs as care providers and educators, and explore the relationship between community pharmacies and DSME/T programs.|Study design: Sequential exploratory mixed methods design. Six in-depth interviews of program coordinators and intensive literature review were used to inform the development of a survey instrument. Survey was constructed from themes generated from interviews and critical literature review, pilot tested, then distributed via U.S. mail to all AADE DSME/T program coordinators. Survey responses were entered, quality assurance checked and analyzed within SPSS to describe, compare and relate findings. |Primary findings: Qualitative themes: (a) Due to their expert knowledge, pharmacists are desired by patients and DSME/T coordinators as educators in DSME/T programs, (b) Pharmacists are often unable to complete the 1,000 direct patient care hours [pre-requisite for Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) accreditation] due to their professional workload, and (c) DSME/T clinics and community pharmacists do not recognize each other’s importance. |Survey results: Overall the response rate from DSME/T program coordinators was 71.7% (532/742). Three hundred fifty two of the respondents were CDEs and 102 were pharmacists, 42% had pharmacists on their advisory board, 36% had a pharmacist involved in their program and 83% of the programs with a pharmacist involved in education had the pharmacist teach classes. Co-coordinators clearly believed pharmacist care is beneficial to patients (Median: 95 of 100 point scale) when asked to rate pharmacist how beneficial pharmacists were on semantic differential scale. Out of the 342 program coordinators reporting no pharmacist involvement, 56% think pharmacists bring additional benefit to the patient, and 25% plan to involve a pharmacist in their program. Sixty four per cent of coordinators feel community pharmacy care in addition to their DSME/T program would enhance patient care. Though 56% of all program coordinators reported that their program was known to local community pharmacies, only 32% are aware of community pharmacists referring patients to their programs. |Conclusions: Through the eyes of DSME/T coordinators, this study revealed a comprehensive description of pharmacist participation in DSME/T programs and insights to their views about community pharmacy relationships. Future engagement of pharmacists in chronic disease management will be informed by this study.