Jamie Kellar, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, University of Toronto, and her research team will work with staff at Extend Pharmacy to develop Canada’s first training program for pharmacy professionals to manage patient mistreatment more effectively during daily practice. As pharmacists’ roles continue to expand and more patients interact more frequently with pharmacists, such training is increasingly important to reduce pharmacy professionals’ risk of personal harm, poor mental health and burnout. Abuse and harassment also increase the risk of medication errors and professional attrition.
Phase one of the research will interview pharmacy professionals to gather examples of mistreatment, their impact and the effectiveness of past efforts to stop the mistreatment. Drawing from these results, phase two will develop a training program to help pharmacy professionals more effectively prevent or deescalate mistreatment by patients. Phase three will evaluate the effectiveness of the training. The project’s expected completion date is mid-2026.