title: Drawing on healthcare professionals' ethnicity: lessons learned from a Danish community pharmacy intervention for ethnic minorities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To present and discuss implementation experiences regarding the involvement of community pharmacists with ethnic minority backgrounds in a medication review intervention for ethnic minority poly-pharmacy patients in Denmark.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data sources include 1) reflection notes from an introductory seminar with pharmacists and the cross-disciplinary research team and 2) five individual interviews and one focus group interview with pharmacists. Data were thematically coded and synthesised to identify underlying rationales and challenges encountered when involving professionals with ethnic minority backgrounds in interventions for ethnic minorities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Informants perceived the need for interventions targeted at ethnic minority poly-pharmacy patients, and highlighted the potential of involving professionals with diverse ethnic backgrounds in such interventions. However, implementation created challenges, because the professional identity of the pharmacists reduced their options for serving as peers with the same ethnic background. Furthermore, issues related to organisational difficulties and overcoming language barriers in the intervention impacted on the potential of involving professionals with ethnic minority backgrounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Involving healthcare professionals with ethnic minority backgrounds in encounters with ethnic minorities holds potential for the adaptation of services to ethnically diverse populations, thus improving access to and quality of care. However, it is important to ensure sufficient personal and organisational support and to acknowledge the delicate balance between simultaneously serving as a peer and as a professional.
authors.affiliation: 1 Section for Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mygind
authors.affiliation: 1 Section for Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lotte Stig
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Nørgaard
authors.affiliation: 1 Section for Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Janine M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Traulsen
authors.affiliation: 1 Section for Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.|2 Pharmakon, Danish College for Pharmacy Practice, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Souri
authors.affiliation: 3 Center for Healthy Aging, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kristiansen
mesh_terms: D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D065246:Culturally Competent Care / Q000379:methods; D003718:Denmark; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D059065:Medication Reconciliation; D008913:Minority Groups; D010379:Peer Group; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019338:Polypharmacy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations
keywords: Denmark; Pharmacists; chronic illness; community pharmacy; ethnicity; evaluation; intervention; medication review; peer theory