A global perspective of the roles of the pharmacist in the NICU.
OBJECTIVE
To describe pharmacist practice and roles performed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) worldwide and to map these findings along the medicines management pathway (MMP).


METHODS
Quasi-systematic review.


METHODS
Google Scholar, Medline/PubMed and Embase were searched utilising the selected MeSH terms.


RESULTS
Thirty sources of information were reviewed. Overall, pharmacist practice in the NICU involves a wide-range of roles, with the most commonly reported involving patient medication chart review, therapeutic drug monitoring and the provision of medication information. Studies highlight that pharmacist contribution to total parenteral nutrition (TPN) regimens and patient medication chart review is beneficial to patient outcomes. Roles beyond the regular scope of practice included involvement in immunisation programmes and research. Most of the data were collected from the USA (13 of 30), followed by the UK (6 of 30) and reports from other countries. The American, British, South African and Australian articles have reported very similar roles, with a pharmacist firmly integrated into the overall structure of the NICU team.


CONCLUSIONS
The literature identifies that there is insufficient evidence to describe what roles are currently performed in NICUs worldwide. This is due to the lack of recently published articles leading to a large gap in knowledge in understanding what contemporary pharmaceutical services in the NICU comprise. Further research is required to address these gaps in knowledge, and identify the impact of the pharmacist's role on neonatal patient outcomes as well as to determine how to better resource NICUs to access pharmacy services.
University of Technology Sydney, Graduate School of Health (Pharmacy), Broadway, NSW, Australia.
Natalia
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5668-7292
N
Krzyzaniak
University of Technology Sydney, Graduate School of Health (Pharmacy), Broadway, NSW, Australia.
Beata
B
Bajorek
D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000458:organization & administration*; D063868:Patient Outcome Assessment; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024382:Professional Role
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
Neonatal care; neonatal intensive care unit; pharmacist roles; pharmacy services