Where do pharmacists fit in the disaster health management puzzle?

Background: Weather-related natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, severely impacting on communities.1 The patient demographic requiring assistance in a disaster is changing from acute traumas to more chronic disease exacerbations.2,3 This requires a multidisciplinary healthcare approach to adequately manage.2 Pharmacists have been recorded in disaster roles in literature since the 1960’s.4 Their roles within these disaster health management teams are not well-established and does not fully utilise their skillset. Purpose: To identify roles pharmacists can have in the four phases of a disaster – prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Methods: Semi structured interviews were conducted with 28 international key stakeholders and pharmacists. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using both open and axial manual coding, as well as the text-analytics software Leximancer®. Using these two methods provided triangulation of methods for reliability of results. This research project was covered by QUT ethics approval number 1700000106. Results: The major theme for pharmacists in the preparedness phase was ‘patients’, and in the response phase it was ‘drugs’. To address the barriers of pharmacists being more included in disaster management, the main themes identified were ‘advocacy’ and ‘collaboration’. Conclusion: Pharmacists are identified as a critical piece to the puzzle in the disaster management throughout the four phases. However, there are barriers acknowledged as preventing the integration of pharmacists into the team. The participants suggested collaboration with other health professions and advocating the value of pharmacists. References 1. Sauerborn, R., & Ebi, K. (2012). Climate Change and Natural Disasters-Integrating Science and Practice to Protect Health. Global Health Action, 5. doi: 10.3402/gha.v5i0.19295 2. Chan EYY. 2017. Public health humanitarian responses to natural disasters: Taylor & Francis. 3. Jhung, M. A., Shehab, N., Rohr-Allegrini, C., Pollock, D. A., Sanchez, R., Guerra, F., & Jernigan, D. B. (2007). Chronic Disease and Disasters. Medication Demands of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33(3), 207-210. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.04.030 4. Ford, H., Dallas, C. E., & Harris, C. (2013). Examining Roles Pharmacists Assume in Disasters: A Content Analytic Approach. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 7(06), 563-572