Applying a best-worst scaling methodology to prioritise important attributes of counselling from community pharmacy users’ perspective, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to identify community pharmacy users’ relevant counselling attributes and to quantify their relative importance. Methods A total of 22 attributes related to counselling in community pharmacy were identified from a literature review, interviews with local pharmacy users and validation among academic experts. To prioritise the attributes, a best–worst scaling (BWS) object case survey was used. Each respondent was asked to complete 17 choice tasks. In each choice task, the participants were asked to choose the most and least important attributes of counselling from a list of four items. The study was conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Key findings A 120 participants completed the questionnaire. The three most important attributes were the quality of information provided during consultation, the extent and depth of the consultation and the pharmacist's education and experience. The three least important attribute were type of pharmacy (independent versus chain pharmacy) and pharmacist's gender or nationality. Conclusions Our study suggests that community pharmacy users place the most emphasis on the content of counselling and community pharmacists’ experience and communication skills.

Public attitudes towards community pharmacy in Arabic speaking Middle Eastern countries: A systematic review

“…One study was multi-method design including literature review, phone interviews, and questionnaire. 29 One study explored patient opinions as part of an intervention trial where patients with diabetes received reminder packages, 30 another study reported a novel instrument for evaluating patient satisfaction with pharmacy services within the Arabic context, 42 and one study used a qualitative (phenomenology) approach employing focus groups. 44…”

“…Two studies were conducted in both community pharmacies and public places/shopping centers. 29,38 Other studies recruited participants from a variety of other public places and government offices, as well as from other patient care settings. 39,[42][43][44]47,50,51,58,[60][61][62]…”

“…Overall satisfaction with community pharmacy or community pharmacist services ranged from 33% to 67.1% in 7 studies. 33,34,38,42,53,54,60,61 More than 50% of participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the quality, amount, type or completeness of the information provided by pharmacists regarding health and medication use in seven studies 29,32,[37][38][39]51,63 while less than 50% participants were satisfied with the pharmacist medication consultation in four studies. 34,41,42,45, Satisfaction with the time spent in counseling was also variable.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community Pharmacists Toward Non-pharmaceutical Products in Saudi Arabia

“…Effective patient counseling is a multifactorial task as it is influenced by the patient's expectations of their pharmacy visits and perspectives of the professional role of the pharmacists working in a community setting, pharmacist questioning skills, patient willingness to answer questions, and differences in pharmacists' and patients' perceptions of the diseases and the treatment (10). However, it has been reported that despite the efforts made by MOH and SFDA to ensure that community pharmacists follow the best practice in performing day-to-day tasks, i.e., drug dispensing and counseling, the services provided are still suboptimal (11).…”