Background Resistance from physicians and nurses is seen as a potential blockage to implementation of an emergency pharmacist programme.

Purpose To examine the perceived value of the emergency pharmacist (EP) role from the perspective of emergency physicians and nursing staff.

Materials and methods Descriptive survey study. A pharmacist carried out clinical tasks in the emergency department for two months. After this time, physicians and nursing staff were surveyed anonymously using a 17-item survey. Five-point scales were used where appropriate (1 = ‘strongly agree’ and 5 = ‘strongly disagree’).

Results We analysed 50 surveys (42% nurses, 58% physicians). 96% of respondents felt that the EP improved quality of care, 68% considered the EP should be an integral part of the team and 91% consulted the EP at least once. Staff highly valued the role of the EP as a staff member and patient educator (90% and 76%, respectively). They found the EP to be useful in consultations regarding: medicines interactions (96%), medicines used in pregnancy (96%), toxicology (96%) and medicines reconciliation (88%). Accessibility to consultations, information regarding drugs, medicines reconciliation and sense of safety were the most valued attributes of the EP. Respondents gave the role of EP a score of 7.6 (SD 1.8) out of 10.

Conclusions An EP is highly valued by staff and it is perceived to improve quality of care. Staff acceptance should not be a barrier to the implementation of EP programmes.

No conflict of interest.