Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BALKAN 7TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED SCIENCES, Skopje, Makedonya, 3 - 05 Şubat 2023, ss.50-62
THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY PHARMACIES WORK ENVIRONMENT ON
PATIENT SAFETY IN TURKEY
ABSTRACT
The social environment of community pharmacists, namely a pharmacy as a workplace, is a
complex environment that changes frequently due to the interaction of the people in it. As
specified in the law, a pharmacy should have medicine shelves, a laboratory, a cold chain
cabinet, a medicine counter and an area where laboratory materials can be stored, within a
minimum area of 35 square meters. The working environment affects the quality of the work
performed. In this study, the effect of the working environment of community pharmacists and
the conditions they are in on the quality of the service they provide and patient safety was
investigated. The questionnaire questions prepared by the researchers by researching a large
number of literature for community pharmacists and consulting with experts in pharmacy
practice were used. The 96 pharmacists who participated in the study were asked whether they
had enough time to fulfill their pharmaceutical care duties and 32% of them were undecided
and 20% of them stated that they did not have time. 50% of the pharmacists stated that
pharmacy policies, legislation and regulations do not facilitate pharmaceutical care and
administrative work in the pharmacy. Pharmacists reported their discomfort due to the length
of working hours, work stress, workload, bullying from patients, and not having enough time
for their personal lives. 50% of the pharmacists stated that they and their staff are meticulous
about patient safety. In the questionnaire, they were asked to write the situations that contribute
positively to their ability to ensure patient safety and various answers were received such as
"high level of education of the staff", "harmony and peace in the workplace", " high education
level of the patients”. Regarding the situations that would negatively affect their ability to
ensure patient safety, they made statements such as "SSI deductions and thoughts that there
may be deductions", "impatience of patients and low level of education", "legislation and
bureaucratic procedures that are unnecessary for pharmacy". As a result, factors such as the
overlap of administrative and professional tasks in the working environment, complaints and
pressure from patients, work discipline and task distribution within the pharmacy create
complaints in the working environment, harmony or disharmony within the work system, and
these are seen to affect patient safety.
Keywords: community pharmacy, work environment, patient safety, pharmaceutical care.