Perceptions and attitudes of community pharmacists towards patient counseling and continuing pharmacy education programs in Iraq

Abstract

The pharmacist's role in the community is currently directed towards providing drug information and patient care rather than drug compounding and dispensing. Patient counseling is an essential skill for pharmacists. So as to improve the pharmacist role in the community and enhance the patient's education and counseling skills, many continuing education programs are established. The aim of this study is to assess the perceptions and tendency of community pharmacists in Iraq regarding patients counseling and continuing pharmacists' educational programs. A cross-sectional survey was performed on a convenience sample of community pharmacists' from different governorates of Iraq from January 2017 to April 2018. Data were collected using a pretested questionnaire specifically designed from a previous study with some modification to reflect the work nature in Iraq. The majority of pharmacists gave counseling to the patients and spent from one to five minutes in order to dispense a prescription. Approximately (53%) concentrated on the dose of the drug during dispensing more than the duration of use (19%) or drug indication (21%) while approximately half of the patients, on the other hand, asked mainly on the indications of their medications also less than (32%) asked about drug dose. Almost (47%) of participants indicated that attending continuous pharmacist education programs can help them to improve the counseling practice furthermore, the majority of them have an optimistic attitude toward the importance of these programs for the future of their career. Most participants declared that these programs are very rare in Iraq. This study provided a clue that the majority of community pharmacists in Iraq had an optimistic perception towards patients counseling and continuing pharmacy education programs.

Perceptions of Community Pharmacists Towards Patient Counseling and Continuing Pharmacy Education Programs in Sudan

“…33,35 Regarding pharmacists' perception toward continuing pharmacy education, the present revealed that almost all participants were interested in continuing pharmacy education programs, and they declared that these educational programs would help in improving their knowledge. This result is in agreement with the findings of previous studies conducted in Nepal, 21 Iraq, 24 Yemen, 33 and Malaysia. 25 Pharmacists' interest in these programs was more focused on common diseases and common drugs.…”

“…To understand the counseling practices of pharmacists in community pharmacies it is necessary to identify and assess counseling barriers, many studies have already identified different aspects including the attitude of the pharmacists and the crowdedness of the pharmacies. 23 In the current study, the major barrier encountered by the community pharmacists was the lack of patients' interest which might be due to patients' ignorance regarding the importance of counseling, this result is in agreement with what was found in a similar study from Iraq, 24 and another study from Northwest China. 32 The lack of patients' interest might be overcome by promoting public education regarding the importance of counseling and the information that they should know regarding their medications during the counseling process.…”

“…This result is similar to the results of other comparable studies. 24,25 In contrast, in a study from South India that aimed to know the perceptions and attitudes of community pharmacists' toward patient counseling, a devastating result was obtained as 76% of the pharmacists were not interested in providing patient counseling. 26 To provide good counseling pharmacists must spend more time with patients, the WHO specified that the pharmacist should spend at least three minutes providing counseling.…”

“…Some studies found that attendance in continuing pharmacy education programs was the commonest solution mentioned by pharmacists to overcome counseling barriers, as increasing pharmacists' knowledge can be useful in reducing these barriers. 24,26,34 While in another two studies, pharmacists felt that promoting public education will ease the counseling process. 33,35 Regarding pharmacists' perception toward continuing pharmacy education, the present revealed that almost all participants were interested in continuing pharmacy education programs, and they declared that these educational programs would help in improving their knowledge.…”

“…This result is similar to the results of other comparable studies. 24 , 25 In contrast, in a study from South India that aimed to know the perceptions and attitudes of community pharmacists’ toward patient counseling, a devastating result was obtained as 76% of the pharmacists were not interested in providing patient counseling. 26…”