Exploring climate-conscious pharmacy: considerations for community pharmacists

Background

Climate change threatens health and the safe and effective operation of health services, including pharmacy care. Given the critical and increasing role of community pharmacy in providing accessible and community-based care, their role in addressing climate risks and pollution impacts warrants investigation.

Objective

To catalogue actionable resources available to support community pharmacists and learn about opportunities for incorporation into climate-conscious pharmacy practice.

Methods

We used a multi-method sequential design, with an environmental scan of resources for climate-conscious pharmacy practice across selected international jurisdictions, followed by qualitative interviews with key informants in Canada, UK, Ireland, and Norway. Resources identified through the environmental scan were categorized based on frequency of appearance and similarity of considerations seen across sources. Semi-structured interviews generated feedback on the resources identified, their categorization, and identified opportunities for implementing climate-conscious pharmacy practice.

Results

115 sources were included from the environmental scan and 12 key informants were interviewed. Resources were initially classified into clinical and operational considerations they implied for practice and further sub-classified into mitigation and/or adaptation strategies. Key informants supported or did not disagree with the considerations that were identified. They shared resource constraints as a challenge in implementing climate-conscious practice and highlighted the importance of a patient-centred approach to support the implementation.

Conclusion

Overall, actionable considerations for climate-conscious community pharmacy have been identified internationally. Pharmacists are continuing to contribute to planetary health as they are already engaged in many of the suggested considerations. Raising awareness of potential co-benefits may help further equip pharmacists to incorporate climate-conscious pharmacy practices.