title: Medications for Children: A Survey of Community Pharmacists.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Seamless and safe discharge of children from hospital requires successful collaboration with community pharmacists, for whom pediatrics is often a small part of their practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to understand community pharmacists' comfort level and confidence in providing care for children.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a self-administered online survey of community pharmacists in Ontario, Canada. Respondents rated their comfort and confidence on a scale of 1 to 7 in each of 3 scenarios: oral morphine, prednisone, and amoxicillin. We also evaluated the relationship between participants' comfort level and demographics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 622 responses (377 completed and 245 partially completed surveys). A total of 182 participants (48%) were female, 271 participants (72%) had children of their own, and they had practiced pharmacy for a median (interquartile range) of 19 (5-28) years. The percentage of respondents who were comfortable (5-7 on a 7-point scale) with filling the prescriptions as written was 64% for morphine, 58% for prednisone, and 61% for amoxicillin and was not different among the scenarios. Having children was associated with increased comfort (p = 0.02), whereas other demographic variables were not. Compared to the amoxicillin scenario, pharmacists reported being significantly more likely to choose another course of action for prednisone (p = 0.01) but not for morphine (p = 0.25). Although 428 pharmacists (70%) agreed that they maintained adequate knowledge of pediatric topics, 558 (91%) were interested in more education.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Variability exists in the confidence and comfort levels of community pharmacists when dealing with children, and many are not comfortable with the common prescriptions in this survey.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, McMaster Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Alina R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duffett
keywords: continuing education; pediatrics; pharmaceutical services; pharmacists; survey