Roles of the community pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of documents informing practice in Newfoundland and Labrador

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was a time of tremendous uncertainty, with rapidly changing guidelines and health policies that posed challenges for community pharmacist practice. Newfoundland and Labrador pharmacists looked to federal and provincial governments and pharmacy organizations for clarification about their roles and responsibilities during the pandemic. The objective of this document analysis was to identify the proposed roles of community pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as policy instruments that informed these roles. Method: General and targeted search strategies were used to identify documents released by federal and provincial governments and pharmacy organizations from January 2020 to August 2022. Proposed roles for community pharmacies were determined using conventional content analysis and matched to predefined pandemic stages. The type of policy instrument informing each role was determined according to the 5 types used in health policy contexts: do nothing, exhortation, regulation, expenditure, and public ownership. Results: In total, 140 official documents met the inclusion criteria, and 11 distinct pandemic-related community pharmacist roles were identified. The documents described roles such as maintaining continuity of care, providing virtual care, staying informed about COVID-19 updates, prescribing COVID-19 treatment, and vaccinating against influenza and COVID-19. Exhortation, expenditure, and regulation policy instruments informed these roles. No public ownership policies were identified. Conclusion: Community pharmacists played essential roles during the pandemic, which were informed by various policy instruments. The lack of public ownership policies was a notable finding that may have presented challenges for pharmacists in enacting their roles.