The PharmVac-RO project aims to strengthen the role of community pharmacists in Romania in vaccination by developing professional skills, increasing confidence, and providing digital educational tools tailored to real-world needs.

Although vaccination in community pharmacies has recently been authorized in Romania (2022), the effective implementation of this service is limited by significant educational gaps in areas such as active communication with patients, management of adverse reactions, integration of the vaccination flow into the daily activity of the pharmacy, and knowledge of national recommendations for patient vaccination. These needs have been identified through thorough research conducted by the project team at the national level.

The project is supported by a Pfizer educational grant and is carried out as a partnership between two prestigious universities in Romania (University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova and the "George Emil Palade" University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology).

PharmVac-Ro aims not only to increase the knowledge and skills of pharmacists, but also to sustainably integrate educational resources into continuing professional development programs, thereby contributing to improving the population's access to vaccination and strengthening public health.

To address the challenges related to vaccination services in community pharmacies, we propose implementing PharmVac-RO Toolkit, a free digital educational platform accessible to all pharmacists. The toolkit will include learning materials in various digital formats: animated videos, podcasts with health experts, infographics and clinical guidelines, interactive case studies, and an online community ready to respond to participants' needs.

A minimum of 200 pharmacists from Romania will be included in the project, to whom educational materials will be distributed. The training activity will be preceded and followed by the application of questionnaires to verify the pharmacists' knowledge regarding the vaccination service, as well as to assess the willingness to vaccinate.

The research results will be published in prestigious international scientific journals with a high impact factor, classified in the Q1 or Q2 areas of excellence, as well as at a conference, in order to illustrate the future prospects for implementing the flu vaccination service in community pharmacies.