The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “Exploring Inter-professional Collaboration between Hospital Pharmacists and Nurses for Safer Medication Practices: A Mixed Method Study in Iraq” by the MS student, pharmacists Zainab Hilal Abdulkadhim and the supervisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Ali Azeez Al-Jumaili at the Clinical Pharmacy Department, and for the first time with a co-supervisor from the University of Baghdad College of Nursing, Prof. Dr. Mohammed Baqer Al-Jubouri.
The study aimed to explore the current state of inter-professional collaboration between hospital pharmacists and nurses in Iraqi public hospitals regarding medication safety, identify the facilitators and barriers from the perspectives of both professions, provide recommendations to enhance inter-professional collaborative practice and medication safety.
The study included a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design based on Stutsky and Laschinger’s Inter-professional Collaborative Practice Model. The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with pharmacists and nurses, comprising 66 interviews conducted in eight public hospitals in Najaf and Al-Diwaniyah governorates. This was followed by a quantitative phase, in which two bilingual instruments were developed and validated and distributed to pharmacists and nurses across several Iraqi governorates (694 participants: 331 pharmacists and 363 nurses).
The results showed that positive perceptions and a high level of readiness for collaboration between pharmacists and nurses; the level of actual collaborative practice was lower than the reported readiness. Knowledge sharing was the strongest predictor of collaboration among nurses, whereas mutual trust was the strongest predictor among pharmacists. Dimensions of inter-professional collaborative practice were associated with patient, professional, and organizational outcomes.
The main barriers included frequent rotation of pharmacists, shortages of resources and infrastructure, inadequate electronic systems, unclear roles, weak institutional policies and protocols supporting inter-professional collaboration. Problems related to unstructured communication, poor information transfer between shifts, limited opportunities for direct communication, trust-related barriers, professional hierarchy, mutual sensitivities, inappropriate communication styles were identified. Insufficient inter-professional training, fear of blame and punishment when reporting errors, the absence of pharmacists during some shifts, particularly night shifts, contributed to weakened collaboration. These findings indicate that improving collaboration requires an integrated approach addressing organizational, professional, communication, educational, patient-safety culture factors.
The study recommended strengthening collaboration between pharmacists and nurses by standardizing the timing of medical rounds and medication distribution, increasing the number of clinical pharmacists in hospital wards, providing supporting staff, ensuring the consistent presence of experienced pharmacists in wards, developing structured and electronic communication and information-handover systems, providing appropriate spaces for medication preparation, implementing inter-professional training programs, clarifying roles and responsibilities, selecting administrative leaders based on communication skills alongside clinical competence. These measures may contribute to improving medication-use safety in Iraqi public hospitals.
