Public’s Experiences and Expectations of Pharmacists during Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Goal: To elucidate the public' experiences and expectations of pharmacists during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. Methods: It is three cross-sectional of convenient sampling and calculated number of the subject with power eighty. It was a self-reported electronic survey for the population in the King of Saudi Arabia. It encompassed all citizens who lived in Saudi with the age of more than 18 years and above. The survey entailed of the demographic data patients actual experiences of pharmacists during COVID-19 and patients actual expectations of pharmacists during any other pandemic situation. Survey monkey, Microsoft Excel, and Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) were used for the analysis. Results: The total number of responding pharmacists was 461. Of those, 440 (95.44%) were Saudi, and 344 (74.62%) were female, with statistical significance between nationality or gender answers (p<0.001). Almost two-thirds of the responders had bachelor's degrees 319 (69.20%) with statistically noteworthy between among all academic qualifications (p<0.001). Most of the responders were non-healthcare professionals 338 (74.45%), and physicians and nurses representative high percentages 37 (35.92%) and 31 (30.10%), respectively, with statistically significant among the remaining answers (p<0.001). The total average scores of patients' actual experiences of pharmacists during COVID-19 were 3.41. The high scores element was pharmacists routinely counsel me regarding the safe and appropriate use of my medications (3.79), and the pharmacist implemented the MOH covid-19 instructions and guidelines (3.77). The total average scores of patients actual expectations of pharmacists during any other pandemic situation were 3.71 with high scores element was the pharmacist expand their services and will most of my medications request by online and mobile application (3.88) and the pharmacist applied software applications for education for drugs and any pandemic (3.86). Conclusion: The public' experiences and expectations of pharmacist during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia is very optimistic. Therefore, targeting education, training, declaring the pharmacist's role during pandemic situations, emergency public health emphasizing therapeutic guidelines and preventing drug-related problems is highly proposed for implementations in Saudi Arabia.