Work sampling observations of community pharmacists: A review

Abstract

Activities undertaken by community pharmacists may be monitored in individual pharmacies to analyse the division of labour before and after changes in work practices, and for general insight into the current roles of pharmacists. Studies based in community pharmacies have used work sampling techniques, with activities recorded by observers at defined intervals. Sampling methods and the selection of observation periods have varied between studies, with activities recorded at one- to- five-minute intervals or at random. Differing classifications of activities also limit the comparison of findings. There exists a need for further research in this area to address sampling issues and limitations imposed by observers in pharmacies and to provide data relevant to present day practice. Self-reporting of activities using electronic bar code readers and reminders may be feasible for data collection from multiple-pharmacist pharmacies or larger samples of pharmacies.