North Carolina family practice physicians' perceptions of pharmacists as vaccinators

Objective: To determine whether family practice physicians are aware that pharmacists can administer vaccines and assess their support of pharmacists as vaccinators. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: North Carolina. Participants: 571 family practice physicians. Interventions: Mail survey. Main Outcome Measures: Physician attitudes toward pharmacists' involvement with a variety of vaccines and patient populations. Results: A total of 25% of physicians correctly reported that pharmacists could administer vaccines in North Carolina, a state that had recently passed legislation permitting this practice. Almost 50% of the physicians supported pharmacists administering the influenza vaccine. Pharmacist administration of other vaccines received less support. Physicians who were newer to family practice had more positive attitudes than physicians who were in practice for longer periods of time. Conclusion: While agreeing that the role of the pharmacist in patient care is becoming more important, physicians were neither very knowledgeable about nor supportive of pharmacists as vaccinators.