Capacity to deliver pharmaceutical care by community pharmacies: a case of an Eastern Nigerian State Capital

Abstract

Pharmacy practice has transcended from largely a dispensary practice to pharmaceutical care practice. The capacity of community pharmacies to deliver pharmaceutical care was studied using pretested self survey methods. Ninety five percent (95%) of the respondents always educated customers on drug related needs, while 10, 20, 13 and 0 percent recorded generic substitution, prescription error, advice given to patients, questions raised by patients and responses given respectively. About 57% did not record any practice activity. Community pharmacist’s communication with prescribers over patients disease was found to be often (7%), sometimes (23%) and never (70%), About 53% of the community pharmacists did not attend courses, seminars and workshops frequently while 30% did not attend at all; however 93% participated in mandatory update lectures. Furthermore, knowledge of AIDS and diabetes mellitus including their drug management were 54 ± 08% and 61 ± 15%  respectively, while knowledge of the principles of Millennium Development Goals and pharmaceutical care were 39 ± 10% and 48 ± 5 respectively. Twenty percent (20%) of the pharmacies had information library while 70, 17 and 13 percent had at least two tertiary, secondary and primary  literature sources respectively. About 70% of the pharmacies had at least one functional laptop or desk-top computer (Table III). Forty (40), 20 and 70 percent of the pharmacies had neat physical appearance, adequate parking spaces and consistent professional signs respectively, while 53% had a  private consulting area. One hundred percent of the pharmacies had ceiling in the drug storage areas, while 90, and 63% had at least one functional refrigerator and air conditioner respectively. Furthermore, 93 and 67% of the community pharmacies had access to electricity and functional standby generator respectively. The resources and conditions for pharmaceutical care practice seemed inadequate in the community pharmacies studied. There is need for professional reengineering to build pharmaceutical care practice and demonstrate its value to our society.

Keywords: Patient-focused care, knowledge and skill, facilities, adequacy, capacity

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, Vol. 7 No. 4 (2010)