Pharmacists’ experiences serving culturally and linguistically diverse patients in the Australian community pharmacy setting

Background There has been no in depth published study to date reporting on community pharmacists’ current experiences and their future practice needs relating to providing culturally competent pharmaceutical care to Australian culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency. Objective To explore community pharmacists’ experiences serving culturally and linguistically diverse patients who have low English proficiency. Setting Community pharmacists in Australia. Method Focus group discussions with practising community pharmacists were conducted. Participants were recruited from metropolitan Sydney. Discussion centred around their current experiences and practice changes needed to enhance the provision of culturally competent pharmaceutical care. Thematic analysis using the constant comparison method within a grounded theory approach was performed on the data collected. Main outcome measure Participants’ experiences in providing culturally competent care to culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency. Results Thirty community pharmacists participated in six focus group discussions. Inadequate provision of culturally competent care was found to be primarily due to the issue of language incongruence between pharmacist and patient. Participants proposed various means with which such care may be provided to ensure patient safety. Conclusion Pharmacist participants expressed being inadequately equipped to provide culturally competent care in the community setting and identified potential means by which such care may be delivered. Addressing identified barriers that hinder community pharmacists’ capacity to engage in culturally competent practice can potentially improve provision of pharmaceutical care to culturally and linguistically diverse patients with low English proficiency.