Exploring the Pharmaceutical Care of Pharmacists in China During COVID-19—A National Multicenter Qualitative Study

Hospital pharmacists' mental health during home isolation in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19: influencing factors, coping strategies, and the mediating effect of resilience

Objective

There is a notable research gap on the mental health challenges faced by hospital pharmacists in the post-pandemic era. Therefore, the present study aims to explore mental health status, influencing factors, coping strategies, and the mediating effect of resilience of home quarantine hospital pharmacists (HQHPs).

Methods

An embedded mixed-method study was conducted in Zhengzhou, a megalopolis in central China, from 20 October to 3 November 2022. For the qualitative study, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among HQHPs to understand their mental health state，the factors that affect their mental health, and the alleviating strategies they used. For the quantitative study, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the Chinese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25) were used to explore the mental health level of HQHPs. Meanwhile, the mediating effect of resilience was explored and verified with the bootstrap method or the structural equation model.

Results

20 HQHPs participated in the qualitative study. Two themes were identified in terms of the factors that influenced the HQHPs' mental health levels. The positive factors include optimism, family company, and connection with friends, while the negative factors include inadequate supplies, inadequate information, and other emergencies. 210 HQHPs participated in the quantitative study, with a median resilience score of 66 [55.75, 74] in the lowest score range and an anxiety score of 5 [2, 7] in the mild anxiety range. The correlation analysis showed that nine of the 10 influencing factors identified in qualitative research were positively correlated with CD-RISC-25 scores and negatively correlated with the GAD-7 score. The mediating effect of resilience on anxiety was significant (95% bootstrap CI [-1.818, -0.384], p<0.001; or 95% bootstrap CI [-1.174, -0.430], p<0.001).

Conclusion

Even in the post-epidemic era, hospital pharmacists face psychological challenges. They actively address these issues based on accumulated experience and a stabilized mindset. In this process, resilience plays a significant mediating role.

Exploring the problems and coping strategies of pharmacy internship in large general hospitals in China: from the perspective of preceptors

OBJECTIVE

The role of the Hospital Pharmacy Preceptor (HPP) is pivotal in upholding the excellence of experiential training and fostering the professional growth of pharmacy interns. However, there is a lack of studies that provide an overview of pharmacy internships from the perspective of HPP. This study explores the experience and expectations of HPPs regarding existing problems and possible coping strategies in intern teaching.

METHODS

This is a qualitative study that was conducted through individual interviews and focus group discussions. HPPs were invited as participants from large-scale tertiary hospitals in representative provinces of mainland China. Interview and focus group discussion data were analyzed using thematic analysis to see emerging themes from the data. Nvivo 12 was utilized for data management and processing.

RESULTS

Eight individual interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted, involving 14 HPPs as participants. Upon the examination of the interviews and focus group data, four themes were summarized regarding HPPs' perceptions: 1) current presenting problems; 2) possible coping strategies; 3) something HPPs should do; 4) something interns should do.

CONCLUSION

This study found that from the HPPs' perspective, the hospital-based pharmacy internship still has some problems from policy to practice, which need to be addressed by the joint efforts of the state, schools, internship bases, pharmacy preceptors, and students.