Abstract:
In Australia, there are two categories of non-prescription medicines: pharmacy medicines and pharmacist only medicines. Standards were developed to define and describe the professional activities required for the provision of these medicines at a consistent and measurable level of practice. Objective Our objective was to implement nationally a quality improvement package in relation to the Standards of Practice for the Provision of Non-Prescription Medicines. Methods Approximately 50% of Australian pharmacies (n = 2,706) were randomly selected by local registering authorities. Trained pharmacy educators audited each community pharmacy in the study three times, 7 weeks apart on Standards of Practice for the Provision of Non-Prescription Medicines, Visit 1 involved the educator explaining the project and conducting an assessment of the pharmacy's level of compliance.