The Roles of Pharmacists in Optimizing Care for Hypertensive Patients in Hospital and Community Pharmacies in Edo State, South-South Nigeria

Abstract

In recent times, pharmacists’ roles have expanded beyond just dispensing activities to include other patient-oriented services. We aimed to evaluate the level of pharmacist involvement in patient care optimization and their relationship with other caregivers in the management of hypertensive patients. A non-randomized study was carried out among pharmacists. Data was collected using a modified questionnaire, measuring pharmacist role, extent of involvement in patient care and the relationship with other caregivers. Data obtained were entered into Microsoft excel, SPSS software version 23 and GraphPad in stat for descriptive and inferential statistics. Out of 155 Pharmacists, 80 (51.9%) were females, 76 (49.4%) had practiced for 1-5 years and 81 (52.6%) practiced in a community setting. Eight five (55.2%) were most of the time involved in identifying, resolving and preventing drug therapy problems, 79 (51.3%) were always providing adequate information on hypertensive therapy, 64 (41.6%) were most of the time involved in developing therapeutic care plans. Inferential statistics showed that gender, qualifications, years of experience, practice setting, affected pharmacists’ involvement in therapeutic care planning. Community pharmacists were more involved in hypertensive patients counseling and therapeutic care planning (p<0.05). More than half of the respondents were involved in newer roles of pharmaceutical services. In addition, Pharmacists with additional qualifications and those with more years of service had a better relationship with other healthcare professionals.

Key words: Hypertensive therapy, therapeutic care planning, patients counseling.