Borealis
Swanson, Idaylia;
MacKinnon, Carolyn;
Min, Jason;
Leung, Larry
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2023-08-15
The Health Services Centre (HCS) for a BC First Nation supports the community with primary and emergency care, public health programming and medications. The Centre identified a clear community for proper resources aimed at improving medication practices. Limited guidance and access to resources regarding medication practices can lead to technical and logistical concerns that can impact patient care if not appropriately addressed.
To address this need, the HCS partnered with the Entry-to-Practice PharmD Program at the University of British Columbia to develop a Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Medication Practices (the Resource).
The goal of this Resource is to provide a comprehensive tool for the First Nation to improve the community’s culturally safe, effective and evidence-based management of medication ordering, storage, dispensing, education and disposal. These five categories were identified by the authors as encompassing the scope of the community’s expressed needs. The Resource has been designed to be easily accessible by staff both current and future, and specifically relevant to the needs of the First Nation and the Health Services Centre.
An environmental scan and literature review were conducted, examining existing resources pertaining to culturally safe medication practices in Indigenous communities. This data was used to create a questionnaire to identify current procedures, community opinions and community suggestions pertaining to medication practices in the First Nation. Community engagement with members of the First Nation and staff at the Health Services Centre also took place through an in-person townhall and interviews.
The project members developed each section of the resource based on interview and questionnaire data. The Resource was reviewed by university and community partners.