Table 2.

Themes and selected supportive quotes regarding pharmacists’ advice-giving role on skin conditions and relating to the use of topical corticosteroids and adjunct therapy in the community setting.

Themes	Supportive Quotes
Non-pharmacological therapy	“And sometimes you hear advice about let the baby not wear a nappy for as long as possible so life style counselling you can give them, as well as to do with the actual cream itself”
	“So I would advise her to probably have the emollient cream handy in a handbag or in a pocket so she could apply it all the time, as long as she is not handling the food”
	“If it is stress related then there are counselling points on how to manage his stress and how to relax”
Topical corticosteroid indication	“We need to know what it has been used for. How long it has been used”
	“I probably need to find out the indication, which part of the body he uses it for. And just find out from the patient first. I will check why, why the doctor prescriber this for him”
	“Important to explain what the purpose of this (topical corticosteroid) cream is”
Topical corticosteroid safety	“Advising him that after 7 days (of topical corticosteroid), if not better need to go back to the doctor”
	“I would explain to the mother not to worry about the hydrocortisone cream. It is very useful. Using this hydrocortisone cream won’t hurt, provided that she uses it sparingly as directed by the doctor”
	“I would quite often explain about the side effects of overuse, about thinning of the skin”
Topical corticosteroid application	“How many, how to apply it onto the sort of size area. So you need to say to the patient how it is applied”
	“Talk to him about how frequent to use it, and how to use it”
	“Use the finger tip method, just to explain how much cream to apply onto the area so she is using enough so that it is effective”
Topical corticosteroid formulations	“It is important as a pharmacist that you explain there are different groups (of topical corticosteroids)”
	“I would explain to him that the beclometasone is stronger than clobetasone, but the strength of beclometasone is lower than clobetason does not mean it is less stronger than clobetasone”
	“Part of the counselling will be to explain about not just the percentage but steroids are graded in terms of how strong they are”