Publication date: Sep 19, 2025
Community pharmacists in Alberta have a broad scope of practice and may conduct point-of-care (POC) tests for acute and chronic medical conditions. However, little is known about the provision and pharmacists’ experiences in POC testing for respiratory infections. To explore the clinical services offered by community pharmacist to patients with acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) by describing the types of POC tests performed and differences in implementation factors and confidence between active and inactive URTI POC testing providers. Anonymous, online, cross-sectional survey with email invitations sent to 4,035 community pharmacists registered with the Alberta College of Pharmacy in February 2024. The survey collected information on demographics and provision of POC testing services. An adapted version of the Determinants of Implementation Behavior Questionnaire (DIBQ) was used to determine barriers and facilitators. The data were summarized descriptively and compared between groups using univariate statistical tests. A total of 370 responses were included in the final analysis (response rate: 9. 2%, 45%
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Alberta | Community Pharmacist |
| Cross-sectional survey | |
| Influenza | Point-of-care testing |
| Pharmacist | Respiratory tract infections |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Upper Respiratory Tract Infections |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | influenza |
| disease | MESH | pharyngitis |