Canadian Pharmacists Journal / Revue des Pharmaciens du Canada

Canada’s newcomer population has grown substantially over the past several years and will continue to increase. Newcomers are known to have lower vaccination coverage compared with the general population as they face unique barriers to vaccine education and access. This contributes to increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases among newcomers. Pharmacists are the most accessible health care provider in the community, placing them in an ideal position to assist newcomers with vaccine education, access, and uptake.

Using a qualitative descriptive methodology, we sought to understand the perceptions, barriers, and facilitators pharmacists experience when providing vaccine services to newcomers. We completed semistructured interviews with 12 pharmacists who practice patient care in Ontario.

The following 3 major themes were uncovered: (1) pharmacists are accessible health care providers in the community who are willing and motivated to provide vaccine services to newcomers to Ontario; (2) pharmacists do not proactively engage in vaccine education, but they can capitalize on opportunities to provide vaccine education to newcomers by incorporating conversations into routine pharmacy services, and (3) educational materials can support pharmacists and newcomers by addressing barriers and facilitators pharmacists encounter when providing these services.

The main findings from our research study indicate that pharmacists have the potential to improve vaccine education, access, and uptake among newcomers. Educational materials can support pharmacists by addressing the barriers and facilitators they encounter when providing these services to the newcomer population.

Empowering newcomers through pharmacist-led vaccination services can increase vaccine uptake and improve the overall health and well-being of this growing population. Can Pharm J (Ott) 2025;158:xx-xx.

With the legalization of cannabis in Canada in 2018, pharmacists are increasingly likely to encounter patients using this substance. The primary objective of this pre-post questionnaire study was to evaluate the impact of an accredited cannabis course on the understanding, beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of undergraduate PharmD students.

A 38-question, web-based survey generated in REDCap was administered to third-year PharmD students at the University of Waterloo, prior to and right after taking an accredited cannabis course. The pre- and postsurvey data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Pearson chi-square tests were performed on questions in which answers consisted of qualitative categorical data. Two-sided t tests were performed to test the significance of mean differences of questions measuring continuous variables.

In a class of 120 students, 110 completed the presurvey and 79 students completed the postsurvey. After the course, students were more likely to report being knowledgeable and prepared for patient encounters dealing with medical and recreational cannabis, understanding that medical cannabis should be prescribed for select (vs all) medical conditions, rating the quality of evidence as poor to moderate for medical use of cannabis, understanding that medical documents should be more prescriptive and understanding that cannabis should not be sold in pharmacies (p < 0.05).

With cannabis education a part of their curriculum, pharmacy students felt more prepared to engage patients using cannabis both medically and recreationally. Furthermore, students were more cautious regarding the potential use of cannabis therapeutically and indicated that more oversight should be in place. Can Pharm J (Ott) 2021;154:xx-xx.