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Background: Medication reviews may improve the safety of prescribing and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) highlights the importance of involving patients in this process.Aim: To explore GP and pharmacist perspectives on how medication reviews were conducted in general practice in the UK.Design and Setting: Analysis of semi-structured interviews with GPs and pharmacists working in the South West of England, Northern England, and Scotland, sampled for heterogeneity. Interviews took place between January and October 2017.Method: Interviews focused on experience of medication review. Data saturation was achieved when no new insights arose from later interviews. Interviews were analysed thematically.Results: In total, 13 GPs and 10 pharmacists were interviewed. GPs and pharmacists perceived medication review as an opportunity to improve prescribing safety. Although interviewees thought patients should be involved in decisions about their medicines, high workload pressures meant that most medication reviews were conducted with limited or no patient input. For some GPs, a medication review was done 'in the quickest way possible to say that it was done'. Pharmacists were perceived by both professions as being more thorough but less time efficient than GPs, and few pharmacists were routinely involved in medication reviews even in practices employing a pharmacist. Interviewees argued that it was easier to continue medicines than it was to stop them, particularly because stopping medicines required involving the patient and this generated extra work.Conclusion: Practices tended to prioritise being efficient (getting the work done) rather than being thorough (doing it well), so that most medication reviews were carried out with little or no patient involvement, and medicines were rarely stopped or reduced. Time and resource constraints are an important barrier to implementing NICE guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To explore nursing home nurses' experiences and views of work identity. Background: Nursing home nurses are in a unique position as they work at the interface of health and social care. Little is known about nursing home nurses' perceptions and experiences of working within this context. Evidence suggests that using the concept of work identity can support understanding of how workers make sense of their work. Design: Hermeneutic phenomenological study. Methods: The study was carried out in seven nursing homes in North East England. Findings are based upon literary analysis of multiple episodic interviews with 13 nursing home nurses. Results: Participants' responses suggested that nursing “residents” is different to nursing “patients,” and nursing home nurses are required to modify their care activities to account for these differences. Participants also proposed that they are isolated and excluded from the rest of the healthcare workforce group. These issues led participants to feel uncertain about work identity. Many participants attempted to strengthen their work identity by aligning their role with what they perceived the “nurse identity” to be. Conclusion: Nurses' work activities and professional group identity influence their work identity. When work activities and professional group identity do not align with role expectations, as can be the case for nursing home nurses, work identity may be compromised. These nurses may attempt to change work practices to strengthen their work identity. Relevance to clinical practice: Health‐ and social care providers need to account for work identity factors in the organisation of care, and planning and implementation of integrated health‐ and social care initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]