Knowledge, empathy, and willingness to counsel patients with HIV among Indonesian pharmacists: a national survey of stigma

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the level of HIV treatment knowledge, empathy, and HIV stigma of pharmacy students and pharmacists working with patients as well as potential factors associated with stigma. This survey included 250 hospital pharmacists within 33 provinces and 1013 final-year pharmacy students from Java, the most populated island in Indonesia. The data were collected via Qualtrics® and distributed by WhatsApp. The mean age of the participants was (Mean ± SD) 24.68 ± 5.30 years, and 80.0% were female. The mean knowledge score of students and pharmacists were 14.14 ± 2.01 and 15.39 ± 1.87, respectively, out of the maximum score of 21. The mean empathy score of students and pharmacists was 72.06 ± 5.39 and 77.40 ± 1.35, respectively out of the maximum score of 105. The mean stigma score of students and pharmacists was 21.02 ± 4.65 and 20.66 ± 4.41, respectively, out of a maximum score of 48. Regression analysis showed that knowledge, empathy, and willingness to counsel patients were negatively associated with stigma. Working with patients was positively associated with stigma. A multi-level intervention including education may reduce stigma and strengthen the role of pharmacists in caring for patients.

Pharmacy students' empathy and its determinants: a systematic review

“…The included studies were published between 2011 and 2022 and were conducted in seven countries: eight in the United States 2,23-29 and one each from Korea, 30 China, 31 United Kingdom, 32 Indonesia, 33 Singapore, 34 and Iran. 35 Eleven of the included studies used cross-sectional designs, two studies used randomized control trial designs, 24,34 and one of the studies used one group pretest-posttest intervention design.…”

“…28 Twelve (86%) studies included pharmacy students as participants and two (14%) studies informed pharmacy students and other health professional students or pharmacists. 28,33 Pharmacy students as participants ranged from first year through to fourth year students. Three of the included studies reported first-year level of pharmacy students as participants.…”

“…23,24,34 Two studies informed first through to fourth year students as participants. 31,32 We found one paper focussed each on the third year, 25 the fourth year, 33 the second through to third year, 30 the first through to third year, 27 and two others that did not specify the education level of students were included in the study. 28,35 The number of participants included in each of the studies ranged from 40 to 1013 pharmacy students.…”

Awe weakens the AIDS-related stigma: The mediation effects of connectedness and empathy

“…As a positive emotion (19,24,25), awe may increase empathy for others (26). Empathy, an other-oriented prosocial affect including compassion, sympathy, and tenderness (27), is an effective factor for performing kindness (28) and lessening stigma toward stigmatized groups (5,29,30). A recent study have showed that awe elicited by classical serotonergic psychedelic increases empathy (31), which means that experiencing awe benefits to the improvement of empathy.…”

“…AIDS-related Stigma is a widespread social phenomenon. Many studies have been done to reduce it (29), but little research has investigated how to reduce AIDS-related stigma from the perspective of emotions, especially self-transcendent emotions, such as awe. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine the impact of awe on AIDS-related stigma and the mechanism underlying the association.…”