Knowledge Attitude and Practice towards Pharmaceutical Care in Community Pharmacy in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of towards pharmaceutical care for pharmacists working in community pharmacy in Alqassim region in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mthedology: Two hundred twenty four pharmacists were included using a pretested self administered questionnaire designed to carry out a cross-sectional descriptive study. Results: The response rate was 63%, there were (52.7%) of the pharmacists think that they are knowledgeable about pharmaceutical care. The majority of the pharmacists (77.7%) think that pharmaceutical care is the pharmacist responsibility. Taking patients’ medication history is a service often/always provided by (54.5%) of the pharmacists. The most important barriers to provide pharmaceutical care are overload of responsibilities (86.8%), lack of clinical knowledge of disease states (50%), and lack of technical knowledge on how to provide Pharmaceutical care (47%). Conclusion: The current pharmaceutical care situation in community pharmacies in Alqassim needs further improvement by improving pharmacist information regarding medications and disease states, and overcoming barriers to provide pharmaceutical care are useful.