Preventing Opioid Overdose Deaths by Empowering Pharmacists to Dispense Naloxone

Preventing Opioid Overdose Deaths by Empowering Pharmacists to Dispense Naloxone

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Empowering Community Pharmacists program on pharmacists' knowledge, perceived barriers, attitudes, confidence, and intentions regarding naloxone services implementation, as well as change in number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed.

Methods: A 3-month pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2018-2019. Alabama community pharmacists were recruited by email, phone, fax, and mailed postcards and randomized to intervention (monthly resources/reminders + educational webinar) or control (monthly resources/reminders + delayed educational webinar). Outcome measures were assessed via online surveys at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and 3-months post-intervention (T3), including: naloxone knowledge (percent correct); perceived barriers, attitudes, and confidence regarding naloxone services implementation (7-point Likert-type scale, 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree); and number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed. Mean differences between control and intervention groups from T1-T3 were assessed using two-way mixed ANOVA and adjusted analyses were conducted using generalized estimating equations (GEE) with negative binomial distribution (alpha=0.05).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Registered pharmacists.
• Employed at least 30 hours per week at a community pharmacy.
• Employed at a community pharmacy located in one of 20 Alabama priority counties with the highest opioid overdose mortality rates.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Multiple pharmacists from the same pharmacy site.
• Members of the stakeholder panel (from the formative phase of the study).