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Examining Roles Pharmacists Assume in Disasters: A Content Analytic Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Heath Ford ,
Cham E. Dallas  and
Curt Harris
Heath Ford*
Affiliation:
South College School of Pharmacy, Knoxville, Tennessee
Cham E. Dallas
Affiliation:
Institute for Disaster Management, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Athens, Georgia
Curt Harris*
Affiliation:
Institute for Disaster Management, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Heath Ford, South College School of Pharmacy, 400 Goody's Lane, Knoxville, TN 37931 (e-mail jfordl@southcollegetn.edu).
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Heath Ford, South College School of Pharmacy, 400 Goody's Lane, Knoxville, TN 37931 (e-mail jfordl@southcollegetn.edu).
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Abstract

Objective

Numerous practice reports recommend roles pharmacists may adopt during disasters. This study examines the peer-reviewed literature for factors that explain the roles pharmacists assume in disasters and the differences in roles and disasters when stratified by time.

Methods

Quantitative content analysis was used to gather data consisting of words and phrases from peer-reviewed pharmacy literature regarding pharmacists’ roles in disasters. Negative binomial regression and Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric models were applied to the data.

Results

Pharmacists’ roles in disasters have not changed significantly since the 1960s. Pharmaceutical supply remains their preferred role, while patient management and response integration roles decrease in context of common, geographically widespread disasters. Policy coordination roles, however, significantly increase in nuclear terrorism planning.

Conclusions

Pharmacists’ adoption of nonpharmaceutical supply roles may represent a problem of accepting a paradigm shift in nontraditional roles. Possible shortages of personnel in future disasters may change the pharmacists’ approach to disaster management. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:563–572)

Keywords

pharmacistdisasterrole
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 7 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 563 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2013 

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