Community pharmacists as vaccine providers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of pharmacist involvement as vaccine providers in the USA and discuss examples of growing interests in other parts of the world. Design/methodology/approach Literature searches were performed in PubMed as well as pharmacy-related journals....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical governance 2017-09, Vol.22 (3), p.167-182
Main Authors: Rhodes, Laura A, Williams, Dennis M, Marciniak, Macary W, Weber, David Jay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Adults
Associations
Community pharmacists
Disease control
Disease prevention
Drug delivery systems
Drug stores
Drug therapy
Health care
Health education
Human papillomavirus
Immunization
Infectious diseases
Influenza
Labor force
Literature reviews
Pandemics
Patients
Pharmacists
Pharmacy
Public health
Scope of practice
Training
Vaccines
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of pharmacist involvement as vaccine providers in the USA and discuss examples of growing interests in other parts of the world. Design/methodology/approach Literature searches were performed in PubMed as well as pharmacy-related journals. Findings Pharmacists have been involved with the storage and management of vaccines for more than a century. Based on the unmet needs in meeting national goals for vaccination rates among adults in the USA, efforts led to training and recognizing pharmacists as vaccine providers which is now within the scope of practice for a pharmacist in all US states and territories. Pharmacists complete a comprehensive training program in vaccine sciences, regulatory considerations, as well as demonstration of skills in administering vaccines. Over 300,000 pharmacists have been trained in vaccine delivery and this represents the majority of the pharmacist workforce in the USA. There are examples of the beneficial impact of pharmacist involvement as vaccine providers in community pharmacy settings. Research limitations/implications This review is based on a thorough review of the literature but was not conducted in a systematic fashion. Originality/value This review provides a historical perspective and evidence of the benefit of pharmacists as vaccine providers.
ISSN:2059-4631
2059-464X
DOI:10.1108/IJHG-05-2017-0020