BACKGROUND: The pace of practice change in community pharmacy over the past decade has been significant, yet there is little evidence documenting implementation of change in the profession. METHODS: Kotter's change management model was selected as a theoretical framework for this exploratory qualitative study. Community pharmacists were interviewed using a semistructured protocol based on Kotter's model. Data were analyzed and coded using a constant-comparative iterative method aligned with the stages of change management outlined by Kotter. RESULTS: Twelve community pharmacists were interviewed. Three key themes emerged: 1) the profession has successfully established the urgency to, and created a climate conducive for, change; 2) the profession has been less successful in engaging and enabling the profession to actually implement change; and 3) legislative changes (for example, expansion of pharmacists' scope of practice) may have occurred prematurely, prior to other earlier stages of the change process being consolidated. INTERPRETATION: As noted by most participants, allowing change is not implementing change: pharmacists reported feeling underprepared and lacking confidence to actually make change in their practices and believe that more emphasis on practical, specific implementation tactics is needed. CONCLUSIONS: Change management is complex and time and resource intensive. There is a need to provide personalized, detailed, context-specific implementation strategies to pharmacists to allow them to take full advantage of expanded scope of practice.
BACKGROUND: The pace of practice change in community pharmacy over the past decade has been significant, yet there is little evidence documenting implementation of change in the profession. METHODS: Kotter's change management model was selected as a theoretical framework for this exploratory qualitative study. Community pharmacists were interviewed using a semistructured protocol based on Kotter's model. Data were analyzed and coded using a constant-comparative iterative method aligned with the stages of change management outlined by Kotter. RESULTS: Twelve community pharmacists were interviewed. Three key themes emerged: 1) the profession has successfully established the urgency to, and created a climate conducive for, change; 2) the profession has been less successful in engaging and enabling the profession to actually implement change; and 3) legislative changes (for example, expansion of pharmacists' scope of practice) may have occurred prematurely, prior to other earlier stages of the change process being consolidated. INTERPRETATION: As noted by most participants, allowing change is not implementing change: pharmacists reported feeling underprepared and lacking confidence to actually make change in their practices and believe that more emphasis on practical, specific implementation tactics is needed. CONCLUSIONS: Change management is complex and time and resource intensive. There is a need to provide personalized, detailed, context-specific implementation strategies to pharmacists to allow them to take full advantage of expanded scope of practice.
Authors: Mark J Makowsky; Lisa M Guirguis; Christine A Hughes; Cheryl A Sadowski; Nese Yuksel Journal: Implement Sci Date: 2013-09-14 Impact factor: 7.327
Authors: Amy Grant; Liam Rowe; Natalie Kennie-Kaulbach; Andrea Bishop; Julia Kontak; Sam Stewart; Bobbi Morrison; Ingrid Sketris; Glenn Rodrigues; Laura Minard; Anne Marie Whelan; Lisa Woodill; Elizabeth Jeffers; Judith Fisher; Juanna Ricketts; Jennifer E Isenor Journal: Res Social Adm Pharm Date: 2022-08-20