Pharmaceutical care practices among registered community pharmacists in a state in southeast Nigeria: a frontier dynamics assessment

Abstract

Anambra State with over 5million people has prevalence of chronic diseases and drug related problems in a report from a survey by the Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, of the State Ministry of Health in 2015. It underscored the pharmaceutical care practices assessment among community pharmacists since they are usually first point of call by patients. This study assessed pharmaceutical care practices among community pharmacists in a State in southeast Nigeria. We assessed pharmaceutical care practice among registered community pharmacists. The study was a cross sectional survey of pharmaceutical care activities of community pharmacists resident and practicing in the state. Data were analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistics. A P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study determined the documentation practices of community pharmacist and know if they carryout referral, consultation, counseling and instrumental services. It identified the conditions or cases commonly encountered and managed their knowledge of pharmaceutical care, the influence of gender, age on the respondents’, additional qualifications and the influence of years of experience on the respondents’ score on the domains. Of the 87 community pharmacists who participated in the study 53.0(60.9%) were females. The mean years of community practice experience was10.71±6.9years. Only 45.89±20.57 community pharmacists’ document patient care and pharmacy practice activities, 45.82 document patients’ medication, and history taking, while 46.03±20.90 document pharmaceutical care process. The diseases commonly encountered were malaria 459.9±366.4, typhoid fever 437.0±75.20, hypertension 300.37±281, and diabetes mellitus 298.21 additional qualification had significant impact on respondents awareness of pharmaceutical care, p=0.05. Respondents’ age has no significant impact on the scores on pharmaceutical care domains. The result suggests that majority of the community pharmacists do not document their pharmaceutical care activities, which is essential in audit trail and a core component of pharmaceutical care. Malaria, typhoid fever, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus accounted for the highest disease burden in the area. They are aware of pharmaceutical care but lacked good knowledge of the technical aspects of the concept. The practices were not affected by respondents’ gender, age, number of years of experience and additional qualifications.