Volume 37, Issue 1 p. 54-74
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Pharmacists prescribing: A professional restratification or a back to the future scenario?

Audrey S. Paterson

Corresponding Author

Audrey S. Paterson

Business School, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Correspondence

Audrey S. Paterson, Business School, University of Aberdeen, MacRobert Building, 581 King Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5UD, UK.

Email: audrey.paterson@abdn.ac.uk

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First published: 31 March 2020
Citations: 1

Abstract

Substantial effort has been applied to researching government initiatives aimed at increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness within the U.K. healthcare system, particularly in terms of medical practice. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of these on the boundaries of authority within the setting of hospital pharmacies. This paper utilizes the sociology of the professions to analyze and report on hospital pharmacist prescribing in Scotland. The findings indicate a reduction in the authority of the medical profession and that medical practice can be subjected to rationalization in the same way as other occupations, which is of sociological importance.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The author declares no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.