Sudanese Medical Doctors’ Perceptions, Expectations, Experiences and Perceived Barriers Towards the Roles of Clinical Pharmacists: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose Interprofessional collaboration between physicians and clinical pharmacists has been shown to improve patients’ outcome by reduce medical errors, costs and patient adherence. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the medical doctors’ perceptions, expectations, experiences, and perceived barriers regarding clinical pharmacists in Wad Medani. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at five major hospitals in Wad Medani, between April and June 2021 using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among 178 physicians. The questionnaire consists of four sections, in addition to a demographic section. These four sections measure physicians’ perceptions, expectations, experience, and perceived barriers. Results A total of 178 physicians were enrolled in the study. Physicians were comfortable with clinical pharmacists detecting and preventing prescription errors (55.1%); providing patient education (56.3%). Generally, physicians had high expectations with agreement rate of all the items ranged from 51.7% to 85.4%. Most physicians (79.8%) agreed that clinical pharmacists were a reliable source of general and clinical drug information. 64.0% and 59.0% of physicians perceive the unclear responsibility of clinical pharmacists and the lack of physicians’ experience with clinical pharmacists were barriers that can hinder clinical pharmacists’ contributions, respectively. Conclusion Physicians had positive perceptions, expectations, and experiences with clinical pharmacists, and pointed out some barriers clinical pharmacists face. It was suggested that hospitals should recruit more clinical pharmacists to cover each unit within the hospital with clear job description and provide them CPD.

Impact of Clinical Pharmacist Intervention in the Intensive Care Unit, Wad Medani, Sudan: A Cross-Sectional, Prospective Study

“…The majority of Sudanese physicians who discussed their experiences with clinical pharmacists agreed that these experts are a reliable source of knowledge on both general and clinical drugs, and they frequently notify physicians of any clinical concerns with the prescriptions they write. 18 In our study, almost all of the interventions were accepted by physicians in consistence with the two studies in Taif and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which revealed that, (98.5%) and (97%) of clinical pharmacist interventions were accepted respectively. 8 , 19 The findings of this study were greater than the acceptance rate in Qatar at Alkhor Hospital (87.2%), 16 India (94.8%) 5 and in United Arab Emirates (94.7%.).…”

Yemeni Physicians’ Attitudes and Perceived Barriers Toward Ward-Based Clinical Pharmacist in Hospital Settings

“…This finding is consistent with the findings of several earlier investigations. 14,15,18 In addition, physicians in this study indicated that clinical pharmacists may enhance overall health outcomes and patient quality of life. These views are in agreement with those expressed earlier by Saudis and US doctors, who pointed out that clinical pharmacists' participation and recommendations increased the quality of patient care.…”

“…In 2011, Hodeidah University became the first university to offer a clinical pharmacy program, and in 2013, it established the first independent college of clinical pharmacy. 9,10 Previous research has indicated that there are some variations in how doctors see various types of CPSs [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and that doctors seem to have an improved perception of CPSs if they interact with pharmacists more often. 11,[15][16][17][18][19] Doctors in Sweden are skeptical of the expertise and understanding of clinical pharmacists.…”

Physicians’ perceptions and response to the role of clinical pharmacists in a teaching hospital in Egypt

“…This is consistent with limited collaboration reported in a previous Sudanese study where nearly half of the physicians either had never or rarely interacted with a C. Ph. [12] . Other reports have attributed physicians' discomfort with C. Ph.…”

“…According to Mahmoud et al, physicians interacted with C. Ph. mainly to enquire about drug availability, alternatives, dosage, and drug interactions [12] . However, other studies concluded that practicing physicians in Egypt do not consider clinical pharmacists as a part of the healthcare team [11] .…”