An Explorative study on pharmaceutical care practice: from the perspective of pharmacists in Malaysia
Loading...
Date
2008
Authors
Massad Babiker, Ghada Abdel Raheem
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The objectives of this research \vere to explore and gather baseline
information that is necessary for the implementation of pharmaceutical care (PC)
practice in Malaysia. It went further to evaluate the understanding, perceptions,
attitudes, and barriers towards the concept of PC as vvell as to describe the current
pharmacy practice situation hom the context of PC implementation. This is a crosssectional
survey of hospital and community pharmacists in Malaysia, employing th€'
self-administered mailed questionnaire approach. In the cognitive aspects, over 70%
and 60% of the hospital and community pharmacy respondents respectively, had a
correct understanding of the PC process with only 17% <:md J 9% respectively, failing
to agree with correct statements. The current practice situation revealed that, most
hospital and community pharmacy respondents performing lhe pharmacy practice
activities; in addition, they were competent to carry out lhese activities and perceived
its importance. However, the data collected revealed 32% of the community
pharmacy respondents performing the dispensing activities consequently, 34% of
them were competent to practice the dispensing activities and 43% of them agreed
about its importance. Regarding the distribution of time of the pharmacy practice
revealed that both the hospital and community pharmacy respondents would like to
spend more time in performiug the p8lient care activities. In addition, the community
pharmacy respondent had the intention to spend more time engaging in dispensing
activities. In general, hospital and community pharmacy respondents perceived
importance and practicality of developing PC practice and skills to practice it In
spite of this, the data revealed less than 50% of the hospital and community
pham1acy respondents were co1npetent lo deliver the PC practice. The barriers
impeding the provision of PC seem to be related to practice settings such as
insufficient time and no standard guideline for PC practice. [n order to determine the
respondent's variables which could be the predictor for the implementation of PC
practice, H..Z values of three separate linear regression analysis were computed as
0.62, 0.61, and 0.42 for the respondent's perception of the importance, their
competence, and the perceived practicality to develop and implement such practices
in the local pharmacy settings. These findings indicated that the respondents had the
intention to render pharmaceutical care but, they had certain doubt about the
·"
practicality of such practices. Thus, the study provides an insight into the
pharmacists' thoughts and concerns regarding the implementation of PC practice in
Malaysia.
Description
Keywords
Pharmaceutical care , Pharmacists in Malaysia