Assessing the perceptions of pharmacists working in Lebanese hospitals on the continuing education preferences

Iskandar, Katia; Raad, Etwal Bou; Hallit, Souheil; Chamoun, Nibal; Usta, Ulfat; Akiki, Youssef; Karaoui, Lamis R.; Salameh, Pascale; Zeenny, Rony M.

doi:10.18549/pharmpract.2018.02.1159

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon (OPL), official body responsible to accredit continuing education hours for practicing pharmacists, initiated a set of surveys, based on knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards various aspects of the pharmacy profession. These surveys aimed to identify the needs in order to develop safety programs (Hajj et al, 2018, Ramia et al, 2017), design continuing educations credits, or develop assessment-based recommendations to the Ministry of Public Health (Iskandar et al, 2018, Hallit et al, 2017). In the absence of published literature, the OPL was evaluating the possibility of establishing a Lebanese network of community pharmacists who are interested in research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lebanese community-based pharmacists’ interest, practice, knowledge, and barriers towards pharmacy practice research: A cross-sectional study

Zeidan

Hallit

Zeenny

et al. 2019

Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal

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ObjectiveTo assess the interest, knowledge, practice and barriers of Lebanese community-based pharmacists towards research, and to examine factors associated with interest.MethodsA cross-sectional survey, conducted between January and May 2017, enrolled community pharmacists using a proportionate random sample of community pharmacies in the five districts of Lebanon, using the list of pharmacies provided by the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists. In the absence of validated questionnaires to answer our objectives, we created a questionnaire based on previous research. The questionnaire was modified based on the experiences and issues raised during focus groups with research active pharmacists and research oriented community pharmacists.ResultsA total of 399 pharmacists was enrolled. The results showed that 231 (72%) were conscious about the important role of research in the community pharmacy setting whereas only 5.6% considered it not important. Over two-thirds (68.5%) of the pharmacists declared being interested in participating in research. There was a statistical difference in the percentage of correct answers between auto-declared and corrected responses for all terms, with all p < 0.001.The most reported barrier was lack of time during hours of work (90.9%), followed by the lack of pharmacy staff (73.7%), lack of financial resources (68.9%), patient’s lack of education and resistance to participation (64.8%), and lack of support (63.8%). Age (aOR = 0.92), years of experience (aOR = 1.06), and having been involved in research (aOR = 3.17) were associated with higher interest in research. Having studied in Lebanon (aOR = 3.63), having received previous research courses (aOR = 11.12) and being interested in research (aOR = 2.74) were associated with having participated in research projects during their professional experience.ConclusionLebanese pharmacists have the good will to conduct and participate in research, but are lacking knowledge; this issue needs to be addressed vividly. Addressing the identified barriers could improve the research output of Lebanese community pharmacists.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lebanese community-based pharmacists’ interest, practice, knowledge, and barriers towards pharmacy practice research: A cross-sectional study

Zeidan

Hallit

Zeenny

et al. 2019

Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal

Self Cite

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“…An online software was used to randomly select the community pharmacies sample using the list of pharmacies provided by the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL). Similar methodology was used in previous papers [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Section: General Study Designmentioning

confidence: 94%

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Lebanese Community Pharmacists toward Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Hallit¹,

Zeidan²,

Saade³

et al. 2020

JEGH

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Inclusion of a pharmacist showed that pharmacy-led patient education can positively impact treatment outcome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) knowledge, medication adherence, quality of life, significant reduction in hospital admission rates, and emergency department visits. The objectives were to assess the degree of COPD knowledge in Lebanese community pharmacists as well as their attitudes and practice toward disease management. Between January and May 2018, a cross-sectional survey enrolled 709 Lebanese community pharmacists. A committee was created to build up the questionnaire; it was composed of two physicians (one infectious disease specialist and one pulmonologist) and eight pharmacists, with long expertise in community and hospital pharmacy. It comprised 12 questions assessing knowledge, 12 questions for attitude, and 13 questions for practice. Higher attitude (b = 0.56) and higher practice (b = 0.41) were associated with higher knowledge score. Higher knowledge (b = 0.10) and practice (b = 0.16) scores as well as female gender (b = 0.60) were significantly associated with higher attitude scores. Higher knowledge (b = 0.13) and higher attitude (b = 0.19) showed significant association with higher practice scores. Female gender (b = −0.94), however, was significantly associated with decreased practice score. Our study highlights the importance of assessing the capabilities of pharmacists of achieving their support role in COPD patients. In order to improve community pharmacists' knowledge of COPD, ultimately improving patient outcomes, further education is crucial.

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“…Turning continuing education general sessions into specific continuous professional development is ongoing: for hospital pharmacists, the order is organizing special sessions to help pharmacists in their accreditation endeavor. [333435] For community pharmacists, sessions oriented toward soft skills acquisition are also being organized, particularly in the fields of marketing, management, and leadership. [3637]…”

Section: Lebanese Order Of Pharmacists' Suggested Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pharmacy profession in a developing country: Challenges and suggested governance solutions in Lebanon

Sacre

Hallit²,

Hajj

et al. 2019

J Res Pharm Pract

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Throughout the years, changes occurred in pharmacists' roles on international levels. These changes are not being followed in Lebanon where community pharmacy is still practiced in a traditional way. Laws need to be updated to align with international standards to drive a change at the practice level. The Lebanese Order of Pharmacists' (OPL) mission is to raise the level of the profession. It also enforces the laws, defends the rights of pharmacists, and improves the level of practice and development of scientific competence. It is also aiming at providing the conditions for enhancing the patient's access to the appropriate medications and its safe use. Meanwhile, the OPL is facing several challenges, most importantly, the deteriorating financial situation of community pharmacists and the decrease in the retirement fund input. To find proper answers to all these issues, the OPL started working, since 2016, on solutions from a proper governance perspective, jointly with all the stakeholders such as the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the universities, and other professional associations. The suggested solutions include the application of the principles of good governance, provision of paid services, developing pharmacists' core and advanced competencies, accreditation standards generation, and new laws and decrees suggestions concerning clinical pharmacy application in hospitals and community settings, continuing education consolidation and professional development, and research- and assessment-based decisions. The suggested solutions are expected to overcome challenges and barriers while leveraging the profession and advancing it to reach international standards.

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Assessing the perceptions of pharmacists working in Lebanese hospitals on the continuing education preferences

Cited by 22 publications

References 12 publications

Lebanese community-based pharmacists’ interest, practice, knowledge, and barriers towards pharmacy practice research: A cross-sectional study

Lebanese community-based pharmacists’ interest, practice, knowledge, and barriers towards pharmacy practice research: A cross-sectional study

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Lebanese Community Pharmacists toward Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The pharmacy profession in a developing country: Challenges and suggested governance solutions in Lebanon

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