Carers’ difficulty in obtaining

information and advice about medicines was compounded by their desire to allow the care-recipient to retain autonomy over their medicines as long as possible. This study highlights the distinct needs and problems with regard to medicines-management when caring for a person with dementia. As the prevalence of dementia rises, interventions designed to address these specific aspects of reduce carer-burden should be a priority for health professionals. “
“Objectives  To determine the characteristics and workforce issues of community pharmacy practice in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Compound Library screening Methods  Data collection was by

anonymous cross-sectional survey. Questionnaires were distributed by hand to 700 community pharmacies to collect information about the participating pharmacists, pharmacy characteristics, the types of products and professional pharmacy services available to patients, and the barriers to offering professional services. Key findings  A total of 344 pharmacists (49%) ATR activation responded. Most were male (64%), had been in practice for less than 10 years (mean = 9.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 8.4–10.0) and were trained in India (35%) or Egypt (15%). The pharmacies were open for business 7 days/week (mean = 6.8, 95% CI = 6.7–8.8) with an average working day of 13 h (mean = 12.9, 95% CI = 12.7–13.2) and were mostly owned by independent non-pharmacists (70%). The pharmacies employed on average 2.6 full-time-equivalent (FTE) pharmacists (95% CI = 2.3–2.8) with 74% employing 1.8

FTE pharmacy assistants (95% CI = 1.7–2.0) and 47% employing trainee pharmacists Inositol oxygenase (mean = 1.8 FTE, 95% CI = 1.6–2.0). Around three-quarters of the pharmacies dispensed fewer than 100 prescriptions (75%) and responded to fewer than 100 requests for over-the-counter medicines (69%) per day. Most pharmacists encountered limited immediate access to up-to-date resources. Conclusions  This is the first study to explore the characteristics of community pharmacy practice in the UAE. The study provides baseline data which are critical to inform the development of strategies to improve the quality of community pharmacy services in the UAE. “
“E. Schafheutle The University of Manchester To enable pharmacists to be clinical professionals, policy and regulation need to facilitate innovation, and changes to education and/or practice need to be informed by robust research. My lecture will be structured into two parts: Firstly, it will follow pharmacists from student to practitioner, and secondly it will describe a study undertaken to inform developments in community pharmacy practice.