Knowledge and practice of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists in Jos Metropolis, Nigeria

There is a global strategy to improve health through prompt identification and treatment of diseases. The pharmacy profession has remodelled its roles in an attempt to meet these global expectations through pharmaceutical care. The objective of this study was therefore to assess the knowledge and practice of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists in Jos metropolis. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 42 community pharmacists in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State in October 2012 using a self-administered questionnaire as the data collection tool. Completed questionnaires were analysed descriptively and relationship between variables were tested by chi-square test using SPSS version 17. Thirty six questionnaires were completed and returned representing a response rate of 85.7%. All respondents (100%) reported they are knowledgeable about pharmaceutical care while 81% of them practice it. Availability of a private consultation room and number of prescriptions attended to per day were found to positively influence counselling time (p=0.008) and (p=0.026) respectively. Years of experience in practice was found to influence pharmacists’ view on confidentiality of patient information (p=0.031). There was a positive knowledge of pharmaceutical care among community pharmacists in the Jos metropolis with 81% of them reported to be practicing it. Keywords: Pharmaceutical care, Knowledge, practice, community pharmacists, JosJournal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, Vol. 10 No. 3 (2013