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INTRODUCTION: Aged care systems are under increasing pressures, demanding optimised interdisciplinary teams. Pharmacist roles are expanding into these teams, and successful integration requires an understanding of team member perspectives. AIM: This systematic review and meta-synthesis aimed to identify, analyse and present the published literature pertaining to healthcare professional perspectives of the roles of pharmacists working in residential aged care settings. METHOD: A systematic search of literature published between 2000 and 2025, in English language only, was undertaken across Embase, Medline, CINAHL and Web of Science. Primary studies addressing the research aim were eligible for inclusion. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool was used to assess methodological quality of each paper; no papers were excluded based on quality. Two researchers independently reviewed and reached consensus agreement for all studies to include. Both researchers undertook a thematic synthesis of qualitative data to identify analytic themes. RESULTS: After removing duplicates, 1874 unique papers were identified through database searching and an additional two papers identified through citation searching. After screening, we included 39 papers for data extraction and analysis. Three overarching themes were identified. Theme 1: 'Supporting the role' describes how pharmacist roles in aged care are supported through building trust with the team, education and experience, access to information, specific attributes, organisational buy-in, favourable models of care, and role clarity. Theme 2: 'Medicines expertise activities' describes how pharmacists perform three key roles valued by healthcare staff: knowledge and communication brokers, filling existing gaps in care, and optimising quality use of medicines. Theme 3: 'Helping the team' illustrates health professionals' perception of three distinct outcomes of pharmacist input (ie enhanced confidence, improved workforce capacity and capability, and improved person-centred care). CONCLUSION: This meta-synthesis of the evidence regarding the perceptions of healthcare professionals on the role of pharmacists in aged care provides contextual information for individuals, organisations and policy-makers for future implementation. Pharmacists are perceived to improve stakeholder confidence, staff capacity and capability, and overall person-centred care. Embedded roles that foster interdisciplinary collaboration are preferred to irregular visiting roles. These embedded roles are enabled through a range of mechanisms that policymakers, organisations and individuals may leverage for successful implementation in future iterations.
McDonough et al. (Thu,) studied this question.