Assessment of community pharmacists’ opinion on pharmacy practice regulation in Oyo State, Nigeria

Background: Community pharmacists have different opinion of pharmacy practice regulation in Nigeria and its implementation in practice but no previous studies have critically looked into this divergence opinion.Objective: This study assessed community pharmacists’ opinion on pharmacy practice regulation and how these regulations affect the quality of pharmaceutical services in Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional study of community pharmacists in Oyo state, Nigeria was conducted in March 2015. Respondents were administered semi-structured questionnaire with 37-item questions, centered on seven (7) categories of pharmacy practice regulation. Information was also received from respondents who motivate their responses and data were analysed using descriptive statistics.Results: Response rate was 86.7%. Respondents (85.7%) agreed that B. Pharm. degree was sufficient as entry qualification for community pharmacy practice, 48.4% suggested minimum years of experience to enter the practice area while 79.1% concurred that continuing professional development was relevant to practice and should be a pre-requisite to licensure. Respondents (72.5%) also kicked against non-pharmacist ownership of community pharmacy while vertical integration was supported by 78% of respondents. ‘Rules on the practice’ were considered necessary for location approval by 58.2% of respondents and 76.9% saw the need for pricing regulation. Respondents who provided reasons for their responses generally expressed their opinion about the present regulation and made suggestions that would help to improve pharmacy practice regulations for better implementation.Conclusion: Community pharmacists’ opinion revealed that the laws regulating pharmacy practice in Nigeria were fairly adequate and better implementation of the various regulations would have effect on the provision of quality pharmaceutical services.Keywords: community pharmacists; opinion; pharmacy practice; regulatio