Attitude and Practice of Community Pharmacists towards Pharmaceutical Care in Nigeria

Background: Since the introduction of pharmaceutical care in the 1990’s, a lot of progress has been made, but misconceptions and barriers to its full implementation still exist. Around the world, community pharmacists are moving from supplying and dispensing medications to gradual introduction of pharmaceutical care into their practice. Objectives: This study evaluated the attitude and practice of pharmaceutical care among community pharmacists in Delta State, Nigeria. Methods: These were achieved through the use of a 30 item questionnaire pretested and administered to 50 community pharmacists that gathered for their quarterly meeting in Asaba, Delta State.  Data were analyzed through chi square statistics using SPSS 23.  A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of 50 questionnaires distributed, 32 were returned, giving a response rate of 64%. Majority of the respondents (28.1%) were aged 50-59 years, more than half (62.5%) were males. The mean age was 40.5 years ± 13.7 years. Majority of the respondents (71.9%) were married, more than half (56.3%) had Bachelor of Pharmacy as sole degree. Half (50.0%) were residing in Warri while more than a third (40.6%) had been in practice for 1-5 years. Attitude was positive (51.2%), practice was poor (39.0%).  Reasons for not practicing pharmaceutical care ranged from lack of personnel (21.9%), lack of collaboration with other healthcare providers; lack of space and non-acceptance by physicians and nurses were 18.8% each, lack of pharmaceutical care skills (9.4%) and pharmaceutical care is time consuming (6.5%). Analysis of educational status versus number of respondents involved in identification of errors was significant at c2 = 21.013, P = 0.002 with Bachelor of Pharmacy respondents (56.3%) identifying most errors. Conclusion: Attitude of community pharmacists to pharmaceutical care from this study was positive while practice was poor. Interventions such as update lectures to improve awareness of Pharmaceutical care and further attitudinal change are recommended. Keywords:  pharmaceutical care, community pharmacists, attitude and practic