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Background Nurses play an important role in interprofessional pharmaceutical care. Curricula related to pharmaceutical care, however, vary a lot. Mapping the presence of pharmaceutical care related domains and competences in nurse educational programs can lead to a better understanding of the extent to which curricula ft expectations of the labour market. The aim of this study was to describe 1) the presence of pharmaceutical care oriented content in nursing curricula at diferent educational levels and 2) nursing students’ perceived readiness to provide nurse pharmaceutical care in practice. Methods A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. Nursing schools in 14 European countries ofering educational programs for levels 4–7 students were approached between January and April 2021. Through an online survey fnal year students had to indicate to what extent pharmaceutical care topics were present in their curriculum. Results A total of 1807 students participated, of whom 8% had level 4–5, 80% level 6, 12% level 7. Up to 84% of the students indicated that pharmaceutical care content was insufciently addressed in their curriculum. On average 14% [range 0–30] felt sufciently prepared to achieve the required pharmaceutical care competences in practice. In level 5 curricula more pharmaceutical care domains were absent compared with other levels. Conclusions Although several pharmaceutical care related courses are present in current curricula of level 4–7 nurses, its embedding should be extended. Too many students perceive an insufcient preparation to achieve pharmaceutical care competences required in practice. Existing gaps in pharmaceutical care should be addressed to ofer more thoroughly prepared nurses to the labour market.

Background: Pharmaceutical care has been implemented and regulated differently across Europe with no consensus among countries in relation with professional competencies and especially on nurse prescribing. Demophac Project funded by the European Commission aims to develop a Pan-European Pharmaceutical Care Model with collaboration of 14 partner teams across Europe including Spain where nurse prescribing is starting its implementation at regional level. The aim of the study was to increase understanding of the role of nurses in Pharmaceutical care in Spain after the Nurse Prescribing Regulation approved in 2018 throughout exploring the views and expectations of health professionals involved in the representative settings. Methods and findings: In depth interviews were conducted in a structure previously agreed by the European Demophac partnership around four topics associated with the Nursing ideal role in pharmaceutical care and the ideal interaction with other healthcare professionals. A grounded-theory approach based on Corbin & Strauss was conducted to interpret collected data from the Spanish most representative settings (primary care, specialized care and residential care for older population). Participants were health professionals involved in pharmaceutical care that accepted to participate (nurses (n = 7), physicians (n = 8) and pharmacists (n = 9)). A pharmaceutical care comprehensive model for the Spanish context considering the recently approved Nurse Prescribing role and the interprofessional collaboration and communication was developed towards facilitating the understanding in such context and the contribution to the unified European Demophac Framework. Conclusions: Nurses are primarily responsible for population’s Pharmaceutical Care while other professionals pivot on them to provide quality healthcare on a multidisciplinary level. Nurse prescribing may contribute efficiently to the Spanish Health System though more consensus in terms of nurses’ trai

Background: Safe pharmaceutical care requires competent nurses with specific knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is unclear whether nursing students are adequately prepared to perform pharmaceutical care in practice. Mapping their pharmaceutical care competences can lead to a better understanding of the extent to which curricula fit expectations of the labour market. Objectives: To assess pharmaceutical care competences of final-year nursing students of different educational levels. Design: A cross-sectional survey design. Settings: In 14 European countries, nursing schools who offer curricula for level 4 to 7 students, were approached. Participants: Through convenience sampling 1741 final-year student nurses of level 4 to 7 were included. Sampling strategies were country-specific. Methods: A web-platform was developed with an assessment of the level in which students mastered pharmaceutical care competences. Knowledge questions, case studies (basic/advanced level), self-reported practical skills and attitudes were evaluated. Results: Mean scores for knowledge questions differed significantly (p<0.001) between level 5 (56/100), level 6 (68/100) and level 7 students (72/100). For basic cases level 5 students reached lower scores (64/100) compared with level 6 (71/100) and level 7 (72/100) students (p=0.002 and p=0.005). For more advanced cases no difference between levels was observed (overall mean 61/100). Most students (63-90%) considered themselves skilled to perform pharmaceutical care and had positive attitudes towards their participation in pharmaceutical care (65-97%). Conclusions: Relatively low knowledge scores were calculated for final-year student nurses. In some domains, lower levels of students might be insufficiently prepared to take up responsibilities in pharmaceutical care. Our assessment can be used as a tool for educators to evaluate how prepared nursing students are for pharmaceutical care. Its further implementation for students of different educ

Objectives To understand healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of nurses’ potential or ideal roles in pharmaceutical care (PC). Design Qualitative study conducted through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Setting Between December 2018 and October 2019, interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals of 14 European countries in four healthcare settings: hospitals, community care, mental health and long-term residential care. Participants In each country, pharmacists, physicians and nurses in each of the four settings were interviewed. Participants were selected on the basis that they were key informants with broad knowledge and experience of PC. Data collection and analysis All interviews were conducted face to face. Each country conducted an initial thematic analysis. Consensus was reached through a face-to-face discussion of all 14 national leads. Results 340 interviews were completed. Several tasks were described within four potential nursing responsibilities, that came up as the analysis themes, being: 1) monitoring therapeutic/adverse effects of medicines, 2) monitoring medicines adherence, 3) decision making on medicines, including prescribing 4) providing patient education/information. Nurses’ autonomy varied across Europe, from none to limited to a few tasks and emergencies to a broad range of tasks and responsibilities. Intended level of autonomy depended on medicine types and level of education. Some changes are needed before nursing roles can be optimised and implemented in practice. Lack of time, shortage of nurses, absence of legal frameworks and limited education and knowledge are main threats to European nurses actualising their ideal role in PC. Conclusions European nurses have an active role in PC. Respondents reported positive impacts on care quality and patient outcomes when nurses assumed PC responsibilities. Healthcare professionals expect nurses to report observations and assessments. This key patient information shoul

Background: Nurses play an important role in pharmaceutical care. They are involved in: detecting clinical change; communicating/discussing pharmacotherapy with patients, their advocates, and other healthcare professionals; proposing and implementing medication-related interventions; and ensuring follow-up of patients and medication regimens. To date, a framework of nurses' competences on knowledge, skills, and attitudes as to interprofessional pharmaceutical care tasks is missing. Objectives: To reach agreement with experts about nurses' competences for tasks in interprofessional pharmaceutical care. Methods: A two-phase study starting with a scoping review followed by five Delphi rounds was performed. Competences extracted from the literature were assessed by an expert panel on relevance by using the RAND/UCLA method. The experts (n = 22) involved were healthcare professionals, nurse researchers, and educators from 14 European countries with a specific interest in nurses' roles in interprofessional pharmaceutical care. Descriptive statistics supported the data analysis. Results: The expert panel reached consensus on the relevance of 60 competences for 22 nursing tasks. 41 competences were related to 15 generic nursing tasks and 33 competences were related to seven specific nursing tasks. Conclusions: This study resulted in a competence framework for competency-based nurse education. Future research should focus on imbedding these competences in nurse education. A structured instrument should be developed to assess students' readiness to achieve competence in interprofessional pharmaceutical care in clinical practice.

Clear role descriptions promote the quality of interprofessional collaboration. Currently, it is unclear to what extent healthcare professionals consider pharmaceutical care (PC) activities to be nurses’ responsibility in order to obtain best care quality. This study aimed to create and evaluate a framework describing potential nursing tasks in PC and to investigate nurses’ level of responsibility. A framework of PC tasks and contextual factors was developed based on literature review and previous DeMoPhaC project results. Tasks and context were cross-sectionally evaluated using an online survey in 14 European countries. A total of 923 nurses, 240 physicians and 199 pharmacists responded. The majority would consider nurses responsible for tasks within: medication self-management (86–97%), patient education (85–96%), medication safety (83–95%), monitoring adherence (82–97%), care coordination (82–95%), and drug monitoring (78–96%). The most prevalent level of responsibility was ‘with shared responsibility’. Prescription management tasks were considered to be nurses’ responsibility by 48–81% of the professionals. All contextual factors were indicated as being relevant for nurses’ role in PC by at least 74% of the participants. No task nor contextual factor was removed from the framework after evaluation. This framework can be used to enable healthcare professionals to openly discuss allocation of specific (shared) responsibilities and tasks.

Objectives Safe pharmaceutical care (PC) requires an interprofessional team approach, involving physicians, nurses and pharmacists. Nurses’ roles however, are not always explicit and clear, complicating interprofessional collaboration. The aim of this study is to describe nurses’ practice and interprofessional collaboration in PC, from the viewpoint of nurses, physicians and pharmacists. Design A cross-sectional survey. Setting The study was conducted in 17 European countries, each with their own health systems. Participants Pharmacists, physicians and nurses with an active role in PC were surveyed. Main outcome measures Nurses’ involvement in PC, experiences of interprofessional collaboration and communication and views on nurses’ competences. Results A total of 4888 nurses, 974 physicians and 857 pharmacists from 17 European countries responded. Providing patient education and information (PEI), monitoring medicines adherence (MMA), monitoring adverse/therapeutic effects (ME) and prescribing medicines were considered integral to nursing practice by 78%, 73%, 69% and 15% of nurses, respectively. Most respondents were convinced that quality of PC would be improved by increasing nurses’ involvement in ME (95%), MMA (95%), PEI (91%) and prescribing (53%). Mean scores for the reported quality of collaboration between nurses and physicians, collaboration between nurses and pharmacists and interprofessional communication were respectively <7/10, ≤4/10, <6/10 for all four aspects of PC. Conclusions ME, MMA, PEI and prescribing are part of nurses’ activities, and most healthcare professionals felt their involvement should be extended. Collaboration between nurses and physicians on PC is limited and between nurses and pharmacists even more.