Patients' opinion of pharmacists and their roles in health care system in Pakistan

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBackground: Pharmacistepatient association is a decisive component in improving health care system. To offer patient centred services, the pharmacists need to fully understand patients' perspectives and views to meet their needs and expectations. Purpose: To evaluate patients' perception of pharmacist and pharmacy practice in Pakistan. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted between July and September 2012 on patients attended out-patient clinic in a teaching hospital of Pakistan. By using raosoft sample size calculator, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 376 patients. Questionnaire included different section which evaluated the demographic information, frequency and reason of interaction, perception and choice of pharmacy. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS (v.17). Results: A total of 301, out of 376, surveys returned giving a response rate of 80%. 51.8% (n ¼ 156) participants interacted with pharmacist on regular basis. The major reasons of interaction were drug alternative and drug availability queries (41.5%, n ¼ 125 and 26.2%, n ¼ 79). The finding also showed that 84.1% (n ¼ 253) of participants agreed that pharmacists are important part of health care system. Interestingly, all the patients (n ¼ 301) either agreed or strongly agreed that discount was the major influencing factor on their choice of pharmacy. Conclusion: The patients' perception of pharmacist in Pakistan was generally positive but their understanding is very primitive as majority of the patients are unaware of pharmaceutical care services. However, they are more devoted to witness such services being practiced in Pakistan. This transition in practice could be brought into certainty by proactive involvement of pharmacists in community setup.

Perception of patients towards the role of pharmacist: a cross-sectional study from selected three hospitals in Central Nepal

“…Lack of time and private areas for counselling were contributed for lower frequency of interaction of patients with pharmacist . Our findings were consistent with study on patients’ opinion of pharmacists and their role in healthcare system in Pakistan; however, it reported that drug alternatives queries were the main reason for interaction. Additionally, drug‐related queries might be the indication that doctors are not being able to spend enough time with patients including explanation of dosage of medications, probably a consequence of low doctor‐to‐population ratio (1:1724) in Nepal .…”

“…In Ethiopia, almost similar proportions (36.2%) of participants had poor perception towards the services provided by pharmacy professionals . In contrast to this, pharmacists were perceived as healthcare professionals in Pakistan by large majority of study population and were associated with gender, education and occupation of participants . Additionally, majority of our study participants believed that the job of pharmacist is to follow the advice of doctor and they are business persons who sell medicine, and these perceptions did not have significant association with socio‐demographic variables.…”

“…Three hospitals were purposively selected, and a total of 400 study participants were enrolled by systematic random sampling method considering every fourth patient from each pharmacy of the hospital. The data collection instrument was adapted from previous literature . A written informed consent was sought from each participant or their authorized relatives prior to participation in this study.…”

Comparison of the knowledge, attitudes, and perception of barriers regarding adverse drug reaction reporting between pharmacy and medical students in Pakistan

“…These results, however, differ from those of several other studies, which concluded that a lack of awareness of how and where to report ADRs were the major reasons for the underreporting of ADRs [9]. This inconsistency is likely due to patients’ distrust of pharmacists, which discourages them from sharing their health-related problems [10]. Another issue could be related to the inadequate functioning of the drug regulatory authority in Pakistan.…”

Students’ perceptions of the role of pharmacists in the healthcare system in Lahore, Pakistan

“…A multi-disciplinary team of authors developed a semi-structured questionnaire based on relevant literature [11][12][13], and a discussion was held amongst a small focus group (N = 20) of students. The questionnaire was validated in 2 steps.…”