Abstract
The studies of pharmacists' tobacco-related education and practice reported in this issue of CPJ began with conversations in the late 1990s, when nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) was becoming available over the counter in Canadian pharmacies.
My colleague Mary Jane Ashley is a physician in public health research with a long-standing interest in the roles of health professionals in tobacco control, 1 and I am a research psychologist who studies the health of health professionals, examining personal, organizational, and societal factors that influence health professional behaviour. We realized that OTC sales of NRT in pharmacies would put pharmacists in the position of being possibly the first or only health professional contact for people who want to quit smoking, and we thought that it was important to study pharmacists' readiness to take on specific professional roles in this regard.
With others from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit we applied to the National Cancer Institute of Canada, Canadian Tobacco Research Initiative, for a planning grant to fund preparation of a full research proposal. This planning grant program is a visionary initiative that allows researchers to spend the time needed to develop ideas and explore the collaborations needed to conduct meaningful research.
From the beginning, we realized the importance of involving pharmacists in the research. Despite our interest and enthusiasm we had no inside knowledge of the work life of pharmacists. The research proposal co-investigators included representatives from the Canadian Pharmacists Association, the Ontario College of Pharmacists, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Pharmacy.
Useful websites
www.pharmacists.ca/content/hcp/Resource_Centre/Practice_Resources/pdf/guide.pdf
Pharmacist co-author
We were fortunate to interest Claudine Laurier of the Faculté de pharmacie, Université de Montréal, in the project. Claudine's extensive experience and Quebec perspective were invaluable. We also involved practising community pharmacists in pre-testing the questionnaire for the survey of community pharmacists. These pharmacists generously gave us a feel for what the front line of practice is really like.
The survey of Canadian pharmacists yielded important quantitative data on community pharmacists' tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The survey of and workshop for pharmacy educators gave these leaders in the field of educating pharmacists an opportunity to discuss together what is needed for the tobacco-related education of Canadian pharmacists. It also gave us public health, psychology, and tobacco control researchers some insight into the practical issues of education in pharmacy faculties. We are grateful for the strong support we received from community pharmacists and pharmacy educators in completing the detailed questionnaires that were the underpinnings of the findings reported here.
Perspective from the pharmacist co-author
The role of pharmacists in public health is acknowledged by many pharmaceutical associations. The Association of the Faculty of Pharmacies of Canada (AFPC) includes the ability to educate individuals and groups to promote health as an educational outcome for a baccalaureate graduate. Participation in tobacco cessation programs is a classic example of how pharmacists can fulfill their public health role. Such programs represent an excellent opportunity for collaboration between pharmacy and public health. As a pharmacist, a pharmacy educator, and a graduate in public health, I was particularly interested in this project. I was happy to collaborate, especially in reviewing the questionnaire and its translation, as well as commenting on the results. Working with public health colleagues proved to be a very pleasant experience. Although we were miles apart, e-mails allowed us to share our views.
— Claudine Laurier, PhD, Faculté de pharmacie, Université de Montréal
With the pace of proposal writing, grants, research, writing, reviewing, and publishing, it has taken a few years for our ideas of the late 1990s to come to fruition. In the interim, other initiatives with respect to the roles of pharmacists in smoking cessation have developed, including the tobacco-related educational initiatives of the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the Clinical Tobacco Intervention continuing education program in Ontario, a collaborative effort of pharmacists, physicians, and dentists. In the United States, an undergraduate curriculum has been developed to train pharmacists in smoking cessation. 2 It is hoped that this curriculum will be introduced into every faculty of pharmacy in that country. This growing interest in tobacco control among pharmacists is gratifying to see and we have been privileged to participate in helping to expand pharmacists' links with public health in this particular context.
We hope the publication of our work will contribute to this growth and form a foundation for further research on the tobacco-related practice of Canadian pharmacists.