Southern Yemeni Pharmacy Dispensers ' Understanding, Attitudes and Perceived Barriers Related to Pharmaceutical Care

Abstract

Background: Pharmaceutical care (PC) is the value of a practice that includes recognizing and solving medication therapy issues to improve patient outcomes. Studies regarding this issue in Yemen are very limited.
 Objectives: The study aims to assess the perception of community pharmacists to the concept of Pharmaceutical care and the obstacles that limit the provision of pharmaceutical care.
 Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study of community pharmacy dispensers (CPDs) was conducted among pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacies in different areas of South Yemen from September 2019 until December 2019. The structured self-administered questionnaires consist of four sections dealing with the demographics of participants and their understanding of the concept of pharmaceutical care and their attitudes and obstacles to the implementation of pharmaceutical care in Yemen. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0
 Results: A total of Two-hundred pharmacists were included in this study. The result revealed that there were a reasonable number of experts (over 5 years' experience) and educated pharmacists( Diploma and bachelor’s degree) available for counseling patients about specific issues in the community pharmacies. Interestingly, all the respondents had good knowledge of pharmaceutical care and the majority of the pharmacists (87.5%) had a favorable attitude toward pharmaceutical care and their role in the health care system. The overall results relating to the perceived frequency of community pharmacy services provision was lower than (50%) in most statements. The result indicated a gap in the community pharmacists' communication with the patients. There are several barriers impedes the active and effective involvement of community pharmacists such as; insufficient communication with physicians, lack of physical space for pharmaceutical care, the slow introduction of pharmacists’ law, and others.
 Conclusion: The results revealed that pharmacists' understanding of the pharmaceutical care concept is good despite that there was no real implementation of pharmaceutical care. Even though they had positive attitudes towards the concept but there were many barriers to the effective application.
 Keywords: Pharmaceutical Care Concept; Community Pharmacists; South Yemen