The Queen’s University Belfast School of Pharmacy is undertaking a research study that aims to examine how community pharmacies across Northern Ireland have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. This study may be of particular interest to community pharmacists who have had to adapt their practice to cope with the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research pharmacist, Dr Susan Patterson, will contact a random sample of pharmacies by telephone and ask if the pharmacist at each of these pharmacies would be willing to take part in a short telephone questionnaire, which will take about 15 minutes to complete.
All community pharmacists in Northern Ireland are eligible to participate in this study and participation is voluntary. The questionnaire will ask for your views on how prepared you felt for the Covid-19 pandemic and how your pharmacy responded to it.
The questionnaire has a very practical focus in terms of day-to-day preparedness/operation of the pharmacy and has been reviewed/piloted with peers.
You will be contributing to an important study that is assessing the community pharmacy response to Covid-19 in NI that will inform the profession’s preparedness for future pandemics and public health crises.
If you receive a telephone call about this study, the procedure will be briefly explained to you and you will be asked if you are willing to give your verbal consent to participating. You will have the opportunity to ask further questions if you wish. Your consent to participate will be recorded by the researcher.
All the data collected during the questionnaire study will be anonymised.
You can withdraw from the study at any stage of the process without having to give a reason and if you do so, all data relating to you will be destroyed.